Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation and Standardization Policies (WP. 6)

Accidents in mines, offshore facilities, plants Cause casualties, loss of animal life, environmental and economic damage

Proliferation of low quality goods Endangers consumers Weakens compliant business

Absolute safety cannot be achieved but many risks can be mitigated: By reinforcing competent authorities By empowering consumers By strengthening cooperation

What we are: Forum for dialogue on voluntary standards & technical regulations 1970 – 2010: 40 years Our goal: Protect health, safety, natural environment No unnecessary barriers to trade Our activities: Share info & best practice Develop and maintain a set of recommendations Implement a set of initiatives on specific industrial sectors Organize training and awareness raising events to build capacity WP. 6

WP. 6 Network of expertise Regulatory authorities Market surveillance authorities, Standards-setting organizations Business & business associations Certification bodies Test houses Civil society from all UN Member States

Areas of work of WP. 6 Standardization Technical regulations Conformity assessment Accreditation Market surveillance Metrology Good governance – risk management

PRODUCT LIFE-CYCLE REGULATORY DIALOGUE Conformity assessment Product design Regulatory cooperation Distribution Market surveillance Production

Achievements in Market Surveillance 1 st & 2 nd International Forum on Market Surveillance, Oct & Oct 2005, Geneva Advisory Group on Market Surveillance (MARS Group) established in meetings of the MARS Group in Slovakia Publication “Market Surveillance in the UNECE Region” 2004 Use of Market Surveillance Infrastructure as a Complementary Means to Protect Consumers and Users against Counterfeit Goods (adopted 2007)

Current work items GMSP: – a general model for supporting the decision making process of market surveillance authorities from the phase of planning of inspections to the phase of product recall, in accordance with their own national legislation – development of the MS sampling sub-procedures Glossary – List of terms and their definitions relevant to market surveillance and post- market surveillance of non-food products. – to promote a common understanding of and to harmonize such terms and definitions used in national legislation Use of risk management tools in market surveillance to: – Plan inspections, decisions on sanctions, communication obligations – Develop dangerous goods data-banks – Balance between legitimate security and consumer safety concerns/business efficiency Market surveillance contacts database – Information on authorities responsible for each sector in each country – Reference to the legislative mandate

Objectives / 2 New areas of work: Establish new Group of Experts on Risk Management Provide expertise on CA aspects of customs union among Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus Aid for Trade Outreach: Quarterly newsletter Request for a MoU by IOML Exploit Linkedin & Twitter Organize webinars Education on standardization matters

Challenges UNECE limited resources (staff, travel funds, consultancy… ) MSAs are overstretched and find it difficult to participate in UNECE activities On some issues, national/regional positions are well established, difficult to build consensus Need to develop IT facilities for working effectively way with teams of external experts (shared web spaces, webinars, reliable listservers)