Case Study

Accreditation central to EU / Japan Trade deal

The European Union has finalized the negotiations for an agreement with Japan to facilitate trade and enable European companies to get an easier access Japan’s large market.

This Economic Partnership Agreement will create new opportunities for exporting European goods and services. The EU-Japan agreement is expected to bring concrete benefits to European exporters and consumers alike.

This agreement provides strong guarantees for protecting EU standards, it also intends to ensure that technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade.

In this regard, the Economic Partnership Agreement includes also provisions on conformity assessment and specifies that the EU and Japan shall use accreditation with authority derived from government or performed by government as a means to demonstrate technical competence to qualify Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs).

Further details are available on the European Commission website.