For fake certificates violators fined 10 million tenge

Us Department of Commerce declared a "war on" grey certificates

A year filled since the formation of the Ministry of trade and the integration of RK, and after this time we reserve the right to ask the question: "What has been done? And where are we going next?" The Ministry has a lot of activities, but the issues of technical regulation affect almost all sectors of the economy of the Republic and deserve special attention.
Therefore, it is important to talk about innovations in the field. Since the main project of 2020 in the trade industry as a whole is the Law "on technical regulation" and the accompanying bill. The law passed more than 10 years ago is, of course, already outdated. In the system of technical regulation, time today dictates new rules. Kazakhstan's participation in the Eurasian economic Union, accession to the world trade organization, and ambitions to increase trade volumes with Central Asian countries, China, and the East certainly require urgent adjustments not only to protect its market from substandard products, but also to target domestic businesses to trade under the new rules. Because this will help "launch" a new round in the development of opportunities that Kazakhstan's exporters should use. They can reach a new level of volume, profit and authority in the world's markets. Of course, provided that the requirements of the countries where we want to "go"are met. This is how markets open.
The appearance or non-appearance of high-quality brands and services in our country is influenced by the state and level of the technical regulation industry. For the first time, the head of state – Elbasy spoke about the need to transform the sphere in his Address in 2018. He made a thesis that Kazakhstan "does not have a comprehensive policy to protect the population from low-quality and life-threatening goods and services".
Objectively, all those involved in the sphere understand that the legislation on technical regulation no longer corresponds to the realities of today and this is fraught with loss of product quality, authority to national standards and the decline of the national certification system.
The area of technical regulation is a very important and very complex "field". Without restoring order here, we will not be able to ensure the safety of buyers of goods on the domestic market of our country.
In this regard, at an expanded meeting earlier this year, the President instructed the Government to prepare a new version of the law on technical regulation and ensure its adoption by the end of this year.

Grey certificates of conformity are a global problem in the industry. Only since the beginning of 2020, the 21st Russian certificate has been identified and terminated in Kazakhstan. We prevent the appearance of" fake " compliance documents. In addition, 6428 "grey" certificates from Kazakhstan were found and withdrawn. As a result, fines were issued in the amount of more than 10 million tenge. Violations touched upon in the issuance of certificates for construction materials (cement, cables, dry mixes), food industry (food products ready and semi-finished products), chemical industry (soap and detergent), for furniture and toys.
As a result, 7 accreditation certificates were suspended and 21 accreditation certificates of expert auditors were revoked. And this is only the surface of the "gray" iceberg.

Noting that the safety and quality of goods and services is one of the most important aspects of the competitiveness of the economy and quality of life of Kazakhstan, Minister of trade and integration Bakhyt Sultanov said:
- Therefore the Ministry as the Agency, which includes the Committee for technical regulation and Metrology, one of the indicators of qualitative growth of trade has chosen to work to ensure high quality of the products sold.
Unfortunately, now on our market you can find a product that even looks like it can cause fears in use. This is because the imperfection of legislation has led to a lack of reliability and transparency of the entire certification process and, as a result, has opened the way for the appearance of certificates that are not confirmed by tests on the market.
We have declared "war" on such gray schemes.

Therefore, the system is waiting for drastic changes. To date, all the necessary normative work has already been carried out. The new draft laws not only formulate a new, stricter policy on products, processes and services, but also set the rules of the game for entrepreneurs in the voluntary sector.
For those who believe that "voluntary" means impunity, we explain.
All products traded on the Kazakhstan market are subject to mandatory requirements. 55 % of it is under the requirements of the EEU, 15% - under the requirements of national legislation and about 30% - without security requirements. But the adopted Agreement on the common security of the EEU provides for the establishment of rules for the circulation of such products on the territories of the EEU member States. The draft law provides for this through Declaration. In other words, the manufacturer (importer, manufacturer's authorized person, seller) voluntarily confirms its safety by issuing a General safety Declaration. This means that it takes a risk: if the product is harmful, the Declaration is a guarantee of automatic liability of the manufacturer/importer/seller.
The issues of conformity assessment (especially in the fight against "grey" certificates) aroused the greatest interest among businesses.
In order to prevent the appearance of "fakes" in the future, the law introduced a requirement for certification bodies and testing laboratories: to have the right to own (or otherwise legally) a testing base and laboratory equipment. This eliminates the appearance of certificates "drawn" - without research and samples. At the same time, the responsibility of laboratories and certification bodies increases.
And most importantly, there will be a transition from the control of subjects to the control of objects, that is, the quality control of the products themselves begins. A procedure is being introduced for sampling products, quickly removing them (if, for example, it turns out that they are counterfeit products or unsafe) and destroying them. That is why the new draft law prescribes this rule based on the experience of the European Union. And if in the old law this provision was somewhat blurred, then in this case there is a tightening of measures to shield the domestic market from low-quality and counterfeit products.

Currently, the draft Law "On technical regulation" is pending in the office of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, and it is planned that at the end of June it will be submitted to the Majilis of the Parliament. There is every reason to expect that the bill will be adopted and come into force by the end of 2020.