Senior Officials from twelve APEC members agreed to a series of documents urging participating members to accept mutual recognition of test reports and certification of electronic and electrical products.

At the on-going Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance (SCSC) meeting of the Related meetings of the Second Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM II) of the 13th APEC Ministerial Meeting, participants also made a breakthrough in drafting out a standard format for information exchange concerning the mutual recognition.

The development of the mutual recognition arrangement (MRA) on conformity assessment is one mechanism that can address standards and conformance related to trade impediment, according to Liu Weijun, who is a member of China's SCSC delegation. Not only could the mutual recognition arrangements reduce the time and costs of assessing goods for the importing economies'requirements, but they could also reduce the level of duplicative testing and certification that currently occurs in trade among the members, Liu said.

As a result, the MRA will make the trade in electronic and electrical products among APEC member economies much easier, Liu said. The related meetings of the APEC SOM II are being held in Shenzhen, a special economic zone in South China's Guangdong Province.

(xinhua 05/28/2001)