2018年1月31日星期三

HKCTC Seminar on the Latest Development of Testing and Certification under CEPA

The Hong Kong Council for Testing and Certification (HKCTC), Hong Kong Accreditation Service (HKAS) and Trade and Industry Department (TID) co-organized a seminar named “Latest Development of Testing and Certification under CEPA” held on 31st Jan 2018.  Two liberalization measures related to certification were introduced under the CEPA Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation signed in June 2017.  The Implementation Guide for the Articles Relating to Certification and Accreditation in the CEPA Agreement on Trade in Services promulgated in Sep 2017 included new liberalization measures in the areas of China Compulsory Certification (CCC) and factory inspection.  In the beginning, Prof. Albert Yu (Chairman, HKCTC) gave a welcoming remark. He said CEPA related to T&C industry to open T&C market in China since 2010. More and more agreements were signed to extend the scope so as to achieve one certificate and one test in Mainland China.


Mr. Chen Haiyang (陳海洋巡視員) (Director General, Department for International Cooperation, Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People’s Republic of China (CNCA)) gave an opening speech.  He said the part related testing and certification in CEPA could help the industry development and enhance made in China quality as well as convenience for trade.  


Then all guests took a group photo.
(Left: Mr. KW Chen (HKAS), Ms. Bella SW Ho (Executive Administrator, HKAS), Ms. Jane Lee (Secretary-General (Test & Certification), HKCTC). Mr. Liu Xin (CQC), Mr. Chen Haiyang (CNCA), Prof. Albert Yu (Chairman, HKCTC),M. Wang Yali (CNCA) and TID representative)


Mr. Wang Yali (王亞力先生) (Department for Certification Supervision, CNCA) was the first speaker and his topic named “New Liberalization Measures introduced under the Implementation Guide for Articles Relating to the Certification and Accreditation of the CEPA Agreement on Trade in Services.  He firstly introduced the history of the CEPA arrangement since 2003.  Until 2010, the supplementary VII was signed and Hong Kong T&C industry was allowed to join CCC task in Mainland China under limited scope.  Then the supplementary VIII (2011), IX (2012) and X (2013) were also signed to enhance the scope of CCC for Hong Kong T&C industry.


Mr. Wang said the CEPA Agreement on Trade in Services was signed on 27th Nov 2015 and the guideline for implementation was issued on 17th Sep 2017 that guideline included implementation scope, qualification of certification body and monitoring requirement, factory inspector qualification requirement, procedures and surveillance management, etc.


According to the implementation procedure, Hong Kong Certification Body and CCC specified Certification Body cooperation under business agreement.  Hong Kong CB inspector needed to be nominated to apply the CCAA qualification for CCC product certification.  


Mr. Liu Xin (劉鑫副處長) (Deputy Director, Department for International Cooperation, China Quality Certification Centre (CQC)) was the second speaker and his presentation entitled “CQC and HKSAR organization cooperation experience sharing”.  Mr. Liu briefed some cooperation with different T&C industries in Hong Kong such as HKSTC (Jun 2012), CDICHK (Sep 2012), Intertek (Feb 2013) and UL(HK) (Jan 2015), etc. 


The following diagram showed the cooperation content under CCC scope.


The following diagram demonstrated the voluntary certification area cooperation.  Voluntary product certifications are separated into two categories and they were government promoted and market driven (CBs implemented).  Those certification included “energy saving certification”, “water saving certification”, “new energy certification” and “low-carbon certification”, “China RoHS” and “Organic product certification”. 


Lastly, Mr. Liu mentioned their next steps were to continue the voluntary certification service and cooperation, focused on CCC factory inspector training and registration, as well as, extended service to international level followed One Belt One Road. 

During the tea break, I met T&C friends and took a photo for memory.
(Left: I, Mr. KW Chen, Dr. John Ho and Mr. SL Mak)


I also met Mr. Wilman Chan (HKQAA).  


Mr. Wang Yali was also the third speaker and his topic named “Articles Relating to Testing and Certification in the CEPA Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation”.  He said the articles signed on 28th Jun 2017 was included OBOR establishment, regional economic cooperation such as finance, culture and trade, etc.  


In the article clause 23 of the chapter 6, they promoted laboratories in Hong Kong to join National Mutual agreement system such as IECEE/CB scheme. (Remark: Operated by the IEC System of Conformity Assessment Schemes for Electrotechical Equipment and Components (IECEE), the IECEE CB Scheme is an international system for mutual acceptance of test reports and certificates dealing with the safety of electrical and electronic components, equipment and products.)
It was also studied if Hong Kong CBs established in Mainland China and fulfilled CCC specified CB requirement.  The application to be CCC specified CB condition was shown as following diagram.  


Mr. KW Chen (Senior Accreditation Officer, HKAS) was the last speaker and his topic was “Procedures and Requirements for Accrediting Hong Kong’s Testing Organizations to the China Compulsory Certification (CCC) System”.  


Firstly, Mr. Chen briefed the background and summarized the scope from CEPA supplementary agreements as follows table.  After that he briefed the HKAS requirements on CCC. 


Then he mentioned the application procedure and continuous surveillance in the following diagrams.


At the end, Mr. Chen said 11 laboratories got the HKAS CCC accreditation but only 6 of them were registered in the CCC list.

Q&A
I asked two questions.  First one was how long to wait for CCC product certification based on only 25 CCC specified CBs in Mainland China.  Mr. Liu said they had service pledge within a specific time.  For some IT or innovation product, time to market was very important. Those product could be issued CCC certificate first and then audit within 3 months. My second question was that could Hong Kong product identified Hong Kong CB for CCC certificate so as to reduce the communication time.  It seems not possible in this time because the application should be submitted to CCC specified CBs in Mainland China first.


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