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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Tetiana KYSELIOVA:"State Standardization Committee wants to cooperate, but with no double standards"

1 December, 1998 - 00:00

  It is no secret
that many imported low-quality, dangerous, and counterfeit goods are sold
in Ukraine. Is the State Standardization Committee, now the central consumer
protection organ, attempting to prevent this?

The Day questioned State Standard Committee Chairwoman Tetiana
Kyseliova during Quality Week, which came to end last week.

"What did Ukraine come to Quality Week with?"

"The State Standardization Committee came to European Quality Week with
fifty agreements in the sphere of standardization, metrology, and certification
with 29 countries, including 17 international agreements. In particular
with all the CIS states, Baltic states, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Israel,
China, Croatia, and Slovenia. Negotiations with Switzerland, Germany, and
the USA are still in progress. Ukrainian experts have developed in last
few years over two thousand standards. 60% of our standards meet or take
into account requirements of their foreign counterparts. The work on mutual
acceptance of certification results is being conducted in Ukraine.

"Governments of the developed European countries are taking a wait and
see attitude, especially when it comes to undertaking mutual responsibility
for the safety and quality of imported good. Sometimes we have the impression
that they are feeling out the possibility of trade relations, based on
the one-sided advantage. The ISO-9000 standard was accepted in Ukraine
in 1996, and now we have accepted ISO-14000, too. However, the procedure
of mutual recognition of these standards is being impeded, unfortunately,
and the QSAR program stipulating mutual recognition of the certification
has been suspended due to pressure from the developed states."

"What do domestic producers, whose products have undergone quality
certification, do in this situation?"

"Unfortunately, metallurgy, rolled metal plants, and machine-building
plants, which manufacture competitive products, mainly fail to overcome
artificial protectionist barriers. Firms, interested in importing Ukrainian
rolled metal, demand our companies undergo quality certification in the
American certification organs. It is worth recalling here that our producers
have certificates of meeting the quality systems of both Ukrainian and
separate European certification organs.

"However, importers seek one-sided simplification of their access to
Ukrainian market. They suggest for this purpose that we acknowledge so-called
"international certificates ISO-9000" (without confirmation of product
safety and quality by means of compliance certificates). However, now we
can provide more than enough examples of where products from companies
known the world over do not meet safety requirements, though the company's
representatives present a certificate of meeting the ISO-9000 standard."

"What can you say about the outlook for cooperation between the State
Standardization Committee and European Union?"

"The State Standard Committee initiated the government resolution No.
224 of last year stipulating the gradual introduction of normative acts
based on EU directives and a program of reviewing our instructions and
legislative base. I should note that the requirements of European standards
are different from international ones. To be more precise, EU countries
accept up to 20% of the ISO standards, and their implementation level differs
correspondingly. The requirements of the International Electrotechnical
Commission on the safety and quality of electrical appliances are more
stringent than the EU standards. The level of out domestic standards is
characterized by the fact that all our methods are acknowledged by ISO
experts.

Now another problem becomes pressing: how do we coordinate international
standard requirements with American standards? We are ready to cooperate
with American partners to settle these differences, and we understand that
it takes a few years to develop and coordinate the ISO standard.

"Ukraine keeps its obligations, stipulated by GATT/WTO, but it cannot
agree with demands by the USA and other developed countries to give their
products free access to the Ukrainian market with no reciprocal obligations.
I believe this is what calls forth the pressure upon the State Standardization
Committee aimed at making Ukraine admit that its technical regulation does
not meet international requirements. Later, upon our joining the World
Trade Organization, an attempt will be made on this basis to achieve the
complete liquidation of our technical regulation.

 

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