APEC Electrical and Electronic Equipment Mutual Recognition Arrangement (EEMRA)

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You Are Here: Home > APEC Groups > Committee on Trade and Investment > Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance > APEC Electrical and Electronic Equipment Mutual Recognition Arrangement (EEMRA)

The Electrical and Electronic Equipment Mutual Recognition Arrangement (EE MRA) is intended to apply to all instances, both pre- and post-market, where test reports or certification are used as the basis for regulatory compliance with respect to electrical and electronic equipment.

For regulators, the EE MRA ensures that comprehensive information relating to member economies' regulatory regimes are available to manufacturers, thereby improving compliance with regulatory requirements. The MRA also provides a 'local' contact should further information be required.

For manufacturers, the EE MRA allows product development, testing, certification, inspection and approval to be obtained within the manufacturers' economy thereby reducing 'time to market,' testing and certification costs. By having mutual recognition of test reports and certification by designated testing and certification bodies respectively, duplicate testing and certification can be avoided when products are being exported to numerous markets.

The EEMRA has three parts reflecting the different levels of participation:

Part I: Information Interchange
Part II: Acceptance of Test Reports
Part III: Acceptance of Certification

In 1997, an ad hoc Expert Working Group of the Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance (SCSC) began work on the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Mutual Recognition Agreement (EE MRA). The text of the arrangement was concluded and endorsed by the Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance (SCSC) in August 1999 at Rotorua, New Zealand. Participation in the arrangement began in 2000 when 10 APEC Member Economies signaled their intention to take part in the exchange of information.

Part I: Information interchange

Information about a participating APEC Member Economy's mandatory requirements on regulated electrical and electronic products is provided in a standardized format to assist those in other APEC Member Economies who may wish to export electrical and electronic products to that economy. At present, 15 Member Economies are participants in Part I of the MRA.

Economy	EEMRA - Part 1 (Word)	Date
Australia Brunei Darussalam Canada Chile China Hong Kong, China Indonesia Japan Korea Malaysia Mexico New Zealand Papua New Guinea Peru Philippines Russia Singapore Chinese Taipei Thailand United States Viet Nam	Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes	2006 2006 June 2007 2006 May 2007 2006 May 2007 2006 2006 2006 2006 May 2007 June 2007 Oct 2008 2006

Part II: Acceptance of test reports

Part II of the MRA commits participating APEC Member Economies to mutually accept test reports produced by testing facilities designated by participating economies in accordance with the designation requirements of the EE MRA. The designation requirements are in accordance with the relevant ISO/IEC Standards and do not require re-testing.

Part III: Acceptance of certification

Part III commits a participating importing APEC economy to accept product certification (including batch testing) produced by certification bodies designated by participating exporting economies in accordance with the designation requirements of the EE MRA. The designation requirements are in accordance with the relevant ISO/IEC Guide. Certification bodies may issue product certificates (Certificate of Conformity), which are acceptable in participating importing economies, thus negating the need to re-certify the product.

APEC EEMRA - Key Contact

APEC Secretariat
Mr Sun Tao
Director (Program)
E-mail: st@apec.org

Part I: Information interchange

Part II: Acceptance of test reports

Part III: Acceptance of certification