Council conclusions of 26 June 1997 — Communication from the Commission on Community external trade policy in the field of standards and conformity assessment
Date: 1997-06-26
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: foreign trade, harmonisation of standards, mutual recognition principle, technical regulations, trade policy

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Official Journal of the European Communities

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(Information)

COUNCIL

COUNCIL CONCLUSIONS

of 26 June 1997

Communication from the Commission on Community external trade policy in the field of
standards and conformity assessment

(2001/C 8/01)

1.
The Council reaffirms the importance of reducing tech-
nical barriers in world markets and preventing the emergence
of new ones to facilitate Community trade and market
access for products thus enhancing exports and generating
employment.

2.
In view of that objective, the Council agrees on the
importance of implementing a comprehensive, coherent and
operational external strategy. Such a strategy should include
the assessment of sectoral and geographical priorities on a
regular basis taking into account trade interests as well as the
evaluation of
this external
strategy should not, however, be to the detriment of legitimate
demands for better protection of health, safety and the
environment and should not put the single market regulatory
regime into jeopardy. It also needs to take account of the
Community’s commitment to the multilateral trading system.

Implementation of

its results.

3.
The Community has a varied collection of instruments
and policies at its disposal: the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement, the harmonis-
ation of standards and technical regulations, agreements for
the mutual recognition of conformity assessment (MRA),
technical assistance and action in the field of regulatory
cooperation. The objective should be to identify the most
appropriate instruments and policies and to ensure that they
are used in a coordinated manner.

4. With that priority in mind, the Council welcomes the
Commission Communication on Community external trade

policy in the field of standards and conformity assessment
policy and strategy in this area.
the
Community’s objectives should include:

fully agrees that

It

— in the multilateral

full
framework,
implementation by all Members of the WTO Agreement
in the bilateral
on Technical Barriers to Trade and,
framework, of corresponding agreements or other
measures to reduce barriers,

ensuring the

— promoting international harmonisation of standards,
regulations and conformity assessment procedures,

— negotiating agreements on conformity assessment to
reduce the costs of testing and certification in other
markets,

— improving coordination and coherence between the
Community’s and the Member States’ technical assistance
programmes in order to ensure that partner countries’
regulatory regimes are transparent and can better serve
external trade objectives,

— achieving regulatory cooperation aimed at harmonising
regulations and standards with other trading partners.

5.
The Council welcomes the general thrust of the rec-
ommendations set out in Section V of the Communication
and wishes to emphasise the following aspects which in its
view should be highlighted in the Community’s strategy.

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A. AS REGARDS STANDARDS AND CONFORMITY

ASSESSMENT ISSUES

— The Council welcomes the report of the Committee on
technical barriers to trade as adopted by the WTO
Ministerial Conference in Singapore in December 1996.
It further recognises the importance of the triennial
review of the operation and implementation of the new
Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade which is due
to take place by the end of 1997 and recalls the proposals
recently submitted by the Community to the relevant
WTO Committee.

it recognises the importance to the
In this respect
elimination of technical barriers to trade of the greater
use of international standards and regulations; of a closely
defined relationship between WTO and international
standardising organisations; of encouraging trading part-
ners to adopt standards and regulatory approaches based
on, or compatible with,
international and European
practice, including the adoption of mandatory regulations
in the form of general requirements along the lines of the
Community’s ‘new approach’ directives; and of promoting
arrangements whereby regional and national standardis-
ing organisations would agree on cooperation to ensure
compatible results with international standardising organ-
isations and to eliminate unnecessary duplication.

— When considering whether, and in which circumstances,
the Community should be more closely involved in the
work of international rule-making/standards bodies, the
Council invites the Commission to study the practical
impact of such involvement from the angle of the division
of competencies between national and European bodies.

— The Council considers it essential for the Community to
establish further geographical and sectoral priorities. It
invites the Commission to provide the necessary elements
to enable it to identify such priorities and to reassess
periodically these priorities as well as the means to
achieve them.

B. AS REGARDS CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT AGREE-

MENTS

— The Council notes that negotiations for mutual recog-
nition of conformity assessment agreements, including
European Conformity assessment agreements with the
countries of central and eastern Europe (CEECs), will be
carried out in line with specific negotiating guidelines as
established by the Council.

In particular, in the case of European conformity assess-
ment agreements, the Council considers that negotiations
should secure the progressive alignment to the acquis
communautaire according to an agreed calendar.

In addition, the Council invites the Commission to submit
an assessment of the potential commercial impact when
opening any additional negotiation. Such evaluation
should be taken into account for a proper selection of
the initial sectors to be covered in those conformity
assessment agreements. The Council also expects a timely
evaluation of the balanced character of the agreements,
both on a commercial level and in terms of market access.

C. AS REGARDS TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM-
MES IN THE FIELDS OF STANDARDISATION AND
CERTIFICATION

— The Council stresses that technical assistance programmes
should be aimed at encouraging international harmonis-
ation of standards and regulations, facilitating mutual
recognition, wherever possible, in order to ensure free
trade while guaranteeing a high level of health, safety and
environmental protection, and strengthening other forms
of regulatory cooperation.

— The Council emphasises that European or national organ-
isations and Member States regulatory authorities should
in technical
be involved to a much greater extent
assistance programmes. Greater transparency of bilateral
and Community programmes and greater consistency
between bilateral and Community programmes should
In
also be ensured to avoid duplication of efforts.
addition,
the Council supports the recommendation
that Community programmes should provide for their
independent review.

— The Council stresses that harmonisation initiatives and
mutual recognition agreements should each be pursued
on its own merits. Nevertheless, in view of the importance
industry places on achieving greater international har-
monisation of standards and regulations, the Community
should ensure that mutual recognition agreements sup-
port this goal wherever possible.

D. AS REGARDS REGULATORY COOPERATION

— The Council reaffirms that bilateral action in the field of
regulatory cooperation as regards standardisation and
certification should be undertaken, without prejudice to
international obligations. Such action should aim

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essentially at increasing transparency and should lay the
ground for mutual understanding between Parties. This
should also facilitate work carried out in the international
harmonisation framework. In all cases, there should be
appropriate involvement of the Council which should be
kept closely informed of the progress and results of any
actions undertaken including the definition of sectoral
and geographical priorities.

— The Council is also of the view that coordination should
be strengthened and that a continuous dialogue should be
started with the third countries concerned to understand
more fully regulatory issues and barriers on major

markets and to follow and influence the course of
regulatory change.

E. AS REGARDS THE EXTENSION OF THE MANDATE OF
THE ARTICLE 113 COMMITTEE TECHNICAL GROUP

The Council instructs the Article 113 Committee to take all
necessary measures to ensure that the Community’s external
trade policy in the field of standards and conformity assessment
is implemented in a comprehensive, coherent and operational
way.

Such measures should involve a broadening of the existing
technical group’s mandate to the extent necessary to ensure
this coherent policy.