‘Abolishing certification of conformity will affect national reputation’

On January 7, the National Assembly Standing Committee commented on the revised Law on Standards and Technical Regulations project. This Law project is drafted by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

According to the bill, certification of conformity is the assessment and confirmation that the object of activities in the field of technical regulations is in accordance with the corresponding technical regulations. Production and business organizations and individuals subject to the application of technical regulations are responsible for declaring products, goods, services, processes, and environments in accordance with corresponding technical regulations and must Register the declaration of conformity with the competent state agency.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai said this is one of the contents where there are still different opinions. Delegates have not yet agreed on whether or not to supplement regulations on certification of conformity to basic standards. He said that the Vietnam Livestock Association has sent a document to the Chairman of the National Assembly respectfully requesting the drafting agency to remove the regulation on declaration of standard conformity in the draft amendment to the Law. “In their opinion, it is a huge obstacle to the development of the livestock industry,” Mr. Hai said.

Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy, representative of the inspection agency, said that the development, appraisal and promulgation of technical regulations should be carried out according to separate procedures, in accordance with comply with the provisions of the TBT Agreement, international commitments and are specifically stipulated in this draft Law. This ensures feasibility and meets the requirements of technical regulations that are highly specialized and directly affect safety, human health, and the environment, so the construction and appraisal process must be carried out many times. Activities such as surveys, testing, testing, impact assessment…

Explaining further about this content, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Le Xuan Dinh said that without a certificate of conformity for goods, it is like participating in traffic on the road where “the rules are not transparent”. He agreed that the State needs to flex its mechanism so that businesses can operate most smoothly, but cannot “do whatever they want, and offer whatever quality they want”.

He said that removing regulations on conformity in the draft will cause businesses to not ensure quality, not be certified, and not be monitored. Besides, this affects national reputation, many Vietnamese goods exported cannot have quality control.

With a very open economy, Vietnamese goods will reach many demanding markets. “If there is no certificate of conformity to standards and regulations, the goods cannot meet the requirements, while other countries’ requirements for conformity to standards and regulations are even stricter than ours,” Deputy Minister Dinh said.

Mr. Dinh cited many types of Vietnamese goods that do not only need certification of conformity for import. Partners also go to Vietnam to control the production process, to ensure quality on a regular, continuous and sustainable basis.

Therefore, abandoning regulations causes loss of control over product quality and safety, failure to meet standards, affecting consumers or harming the environment. This increases the risk of unfair competition, causing disadvantages, obstacles to exports and risks to national reputation.

The Law project amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations will be approved by the National Assembly at the mid-session of this year.