November 8, 2016
On September 13, 2016, The Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People’s Republic of China (CNCA) and UL signed a cooperation agreement in the field of green product certification in an effort to jointly promote the adoption and mutual recognition of green product testing and certification results between China and the US. This is an early harvest from the Sino-US investment negotiations focused on mutual concerns and is an important step toward China and the US deepening cooperation and mutual trust in the field of green development. Additionally, this agreement helps promote the facilitation of bilateral trade between the two countries. Sun Dawei, Vice Minister of the Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) and Chairman of CNCA, and Keith Williams, President of UL, attended the signing ceremony.
However, this is not the first mutually beneficial agreement between UL and China. In 2006, CNCA and UL signed a memorandum of cooperation that helped improve factor inspection and port checks of trade goods for both the US and China. The recent cooperation agreement further expands this bilateral cooperation into the field of green products.
According to the new agreement, designated agencies from UL and China will jointly conduct research to develop green product certification systems and programs and discuss and promote mutual recognition in the relevant fields and of the relevant product types; inform each other of green product certification, testing-related laws, regulations, standards and other information; share best practices and experience in green product certification and testing; and carry out personnel training and technical exchanges. In addition, China welcomes UL to participate in the development of China’s green product conformity assessment procedures and promote the internationalization of China’s green product certification and mark.