WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/W/240 
12 August 2004 
 
 (04-3401) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English 
  
 
 
 STATEMENT BY BRAZIL ON SUPPLIER’S DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY 
 
Special Meeting of the TBT Committee Dedicated to Conformity 
 
Assessment Procedures held on 29 June 2004  
 
  The following communication, dated 9 August 2004, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of Brazil.  
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 1. Since the First Triennial Review, the Co mmittee has been emphasizing the need for 
information exchange among Members in order to increase their understanding on the issue of 
conformity assessment procedures (CAPs) and the ways  to minimize their eventual restrictive effects 
on trade.  
2. In order to contribute to the discussions around the issue of conformity assessment, Brazil is 
willing to share its experience with other Memb ers concerning the development of its National 
Conformity Assessment Program.  By presenting the rationale employed in the design of, as well as describing the Brazilian infrastructure for conf ormity assessment, including the types of CAPs 
currently under use and the conditions for their application, Brazil hopes to provide the Committee 
with useful information on the issue. 
3. This communication focuses on the activities ca rried out by the National Institute for 
Metrology, Standardization and I ndustrial Quality - Inmetro concerning CAPs.  Inmetro acts as the 
executive secretary for the National Council for Metr ology, Standardization and Industrial Quality - 
CONMETRO, which is composed by several Mi nistries and is also the Brazilian Official 
Accreditation Body.  
4. CONMETRO acts through its technical committees, which are open to the participation of 
distinguished bodies of the academic field, industry a nd trade bodies, research centers and consumer’s 
protection institutes, among other entities with sp ecial interest in metrology, standardization and 
industrial quality in the country. 
5. In December 2001 the Brazilian Committee fo r Conformity Assessment - CBAC was 
established.  Among other CBAC duties, it is responsible for assisting CONMETRO in structuring an internationally harmonized conformity assessment sy stem and in proposing principles and policies on 
conformity assessment procedures to be adopted under the Brazilian Conformity Assessment System - 
SBAC.   
6. The Brazilian Program for Conformity Assessm ent - PBAC, developed within SBAC, is 
designed to develop a long-term strategy and a thor ough management plan for CAPs in Brazil.  The 
Program is being constantly revised and re-check ed, with the participation of governmental and G/TBT/W/240 
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 private entities associated with conformity assess ment activities.  PBAC bases its activities on a 
Quadrennial Action Plan, which defines the pr oducts and services that will undergo conformity 
assessment programs. 
7. Current numbers concerning the activity of conformity assessment in Brazil are:  
- Mandatory programs for conformity assess ment procedures: 57 families of products 
- Voluntary programs for conformity assessment procedures: 192 families of products 
- Accredited certification bodies: 36 - Accredited laboratories: 393 
 
8. In Brazil the four mechanisms employed for conformity assessment are:  (i) certification; 
(ii) inspection; (iii) supplier’s declaration of conf ormity, (iv) labeling and (v) testing.  A specially 
developed methodology which takes into consideration not only risk assessment but also legal, 
environmental, technical, social and economic as pects, selects the most adequate mechanism to 
evaluate each product.  
9. In the case of supplier’s declaration of conformity of a product, process or service, the 
following steps must be observed: (i) choice of an accredited laboratory; (ii) testing of the product; 
(iii) administrative procedures, such as filling out the Supplier’s Declaration; (iv) delivery of the 
Declaration, together with other relevant documents , such as test report and quality system certificate 
to Inmetro; (v) evaluation by Inmetro of the co mpleteness of the conformity assessment process; and 
(vi) issuance of the license to bear th e conformity mark in the product. 
10. By means of this mechanism, the supplier is r esponsible to ensure that a product, process or 
service conforms to specific requirements.  The mi nimum amount of information that must be borne 
in the Declaration, in accordance with the IS O/IEC Guide 22, includes the following: name and 
address of the declaring manufacturer, identification of  the product, process or service, declaration of 
conformity, regulatory documents used, place and date  of issuance of the Declaration and signature, 
name and duty of the authorized person. 
11. In the Brazilian System of Conformity Assessment, SDoC is employed only in the obligatory 
field.  It is applied only to products, processes or services that present a mild risk to the health and 
safety of the consumer and to the environment.  It is not, therefore, a substitute for certification, once 
the field of application of both mechanisms is differe nt.  Additionally, when the goal is to evaluate the 
performance of a product, SDoC is also used. 
12. It is important to emphasize that SDoC, like all other conformity assessment programs, is 
regulated by a set of pre-established rules that s hould ensure the same level of conformity safety as 3
rd 
party conformity assessment programs.  In this sense, when 1st party programs are put into practice, 
more active follow-up and market surveillance in itiatives become necessar y, especially through 
conformity assessment.  Besides, an adoption of SDoC for a determined product must take into 
consideration its “quality record” and the level of confidence of consumer-producer relations in the 
specific sector. 
13. In order to ensure a good usage of the SDoC, the Council has adopted a decision that allows 
regulatory bodies to request additional demonstrati on of conformity, such as a combination of the 
supplier’s declaration of conformity with tests unde rtaken in independent laboratories or even follow-
up by inspection bodies. This is a key issue of th e Brazilian approach towards Supplier’s Declaration 
of Conformity.   G/TBT/W/240 
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 14. Market surveillance also plays a fundamental role. It consists on verifying in the market, on a 
regular basis, by the means of samples of pro ducts, the conformity presumably possessed by them. In 
those cases where the assessment of the conformity condemns the declaration of conformity, we deem 
necessary to identify opportunities to improve  the programs of conformity assessment. 
15. It is worth stressing that for each product a different evaluation procedure is employed, which 
includes the use of services provided by accredited laboratories under the Brazilian Network of 
Calibration and the Brazilian Network of Testing Labor atories.  In addition, regular verification of 
conformity is envisaged. The first verification, for instance, takes place six months after the implementation of the program.  The following veri fications will occur on an annual basis,  the 
second being undertaken preferably not before  one year after the first verification. 
16. Until 2004, four SDoC programs were put into practice, on installation systems for vehicular 
natural gas, on disposable lighters and on steel  profiles for power transmission towers.  A new 
program is being developed at the moment, for ve hicle catalysts. By the end of 2003, the first 
assessment of conformity was done, on disposable light ers.  This evaluation has presented a zero level 
of non-conformity, which reveals that the mechanis m presents high level of confidence in relation to 
standards and regulations.  
 
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