Impending changes for global product approvals

A recent survey carried out by UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) found that firms that had exported for more than two years are significantly more likely to be profitable and furthermore 85% of businesses said that exporting helped them grow to a level not otherwise possible.

However, respondents also reported that 43% had experienced difficulties with legal and regulatory issues when exporting. These regulatory issues are becoming increasingly complex with routes to compliance varying from country to country. Some countries do operate systems similar to that in the UK but many require third part certification for safety, EMC or radio compliance. Sometimes this involves mandatory testing within that target country.

Product compliance regulations are being created and adapted all of the time. Some of the immediate changes are:

• Gulf States- As of July 2016 exporters will have to deal with the implementation of the G-mark for safety within the Gulf States. The G-mark rules require 13 product groups of electrical household appliances to be certified for safety by one of the new GSO designated Notified Bodies.
• Chile- The Chilean authorities have lowered the permissible output power of Bluetooth products for outdoor use to less than 5 mW. This may impact on some current products as well as designs that are under development.
• Pakistan– The 2.4GHz band is now open for Wi-Fi. Previously only the 2473.5-2483.5MHz portion of the band was available for the majority of these product types.

TheGlobal Approvals team at Elementcan help you make the most of your export opportunities by cutting through some of these regulatory issues and clearing you a path to international markets.