Role of Conformity Assessment in Technical Regulations

Conformity assessment plays an integral part in the administration of technical regulations, as an instrument for verifying compliance to the essential requirements. Technical regulations are notified to fulfill regulatory objectives that may address human health and safety, consumer protection against deceptive practices, environment protection, etc. Different modes of conformity assessment are applied, depending on the nature of risk, which may range from minimal to high level of intervention and costs. Technical regulations frequently deploy the different constituents of national quality infrastructure such as accreditation, third-party inspections, product and process certification, and metrology for ensuring the credibility and integrity of conformity assessment. The WTO TBT agreement recognizes that conformity assessment has the potential to becoming barriers to trade and therefore encourages nations to select the modes that causes the least disruption to trade, and to enter into mutual recognition agreements that facilitate acceptance of conformity assessment results of each other.