Ukraine has fulfilled one more important requirement for obtaining an “industrial visa-free” regime.
Since the beginning of the year, the possible signing of the agreement between Ukraine and EU on the assessment of conformity and acceptability of industrial products has been widely discussed. This will allow domestic exporters to mark their products with the CE mark and freely sell them on the EU market without additional certification.
The CE mark (from French “Conformité Européenne” – European conformity) indicates the conformity of goods with the requirements of the EU New Approach directives, which establish general requirements and rules of conformity for certain product groups. The CE mark is mandatory for all products entering the European market that fall under EU directives. The CE mark is a safety mark indicating that a product conforms to the European EN standards, including environmental, health and safety at work. It is a declaration that the manufacturer assumes full responsibility for the product’s compliance with the New and Global Approach directives.
One of the first items adopted in September of the Government’s Priority Action Plan for 2020 is to work with the European Union on “industrial visa-free” and update the Association Agreement.
A significant step towards the harmonization of domestic standards with European standards in the field of construction products was the adoption of the draft law 2698 in the second reading by the Parliament of Ukraine.
On September 30, it became known that the President of Ukraine signed this draft law.
The law defines the legal and organizational basis for introducing or providing construction products on the market. The list of obligations of market participants is established and the basis for the declaration of technical indicators of construction products is determined.
In particular, the draft law provides the following:
● the establishment of the range of obligations of the market participants of construction products;
● a definition of principles for declaring technical indicators of construction products;
● the introduction of mechanisms for determining technical indicators of essential characteristics;
● establishing basic requirements for facilities;
● the implementation of a mechanism to ensure the interrelation of regulatory requirements to engineering and structural systems of buildings and construction products.
The draft law also provides that manufacturers must prepare a declaration of indicators and mark products with a sign of conformity with technical regulations.
In the second reading, amendments were added to the draft law to protect consumers from construction products that are substandard and dangerous to health and life, and the state market oversight body will implement measures to restrict, prohibit, withdraw from circulation and/or recall products that do not meet the requirements.
As noted by the authors of the draft law in an explanatory note, the current regulation does not allow domestic manufacturers to label their products with the CE mark and freely sell them on the EU market without additional certification. In addition, changes in legislation, which have been implemented over the past five years, led to the impossibility of market surveillance procedures in the construction industry. The prerequisites of this provision were: the transition in 2015 to the voluntary application of standards, the abolition in 2018 of mandatory certification of construction products, the obsolescence of procedures and documents to confirm compliance with construction products. A consequence of the lack of real market oversight is, in particular, the fact that more than 70% of cement is falsified (according to “Ukrtsement” Association).
Adoption of the draft law will contribute to the harmonization of national legislation with European legislation, the creation of conditions for the free movement of goods and services on the market, an increase in the investment attractiveness of Ukraine, an increase in the safety and reliability of buildings and constructions, the introduction of mechanisms to ensure interconnection of normative requirements to engineering and structural systems of buildings and construction products.
In the medium term, the implementation of the provisions of the draft law will facilitate the signing of the ACAA Agreement with the EU, improve the image of products “made in Ukraine,” facilitate access to other global markets and increase the attractiveness of the state for the localization of production.
As Oleksandr Pan, founder of Spang Capital, notes: “It is important to understand that the law comes into force only on January 1, 2023. By that time, the government needs to develop a number of other regulatory rules, as well as to approve the national standard provided by the new law. At the same time, the CE standards have long been approved, and we expect that the manufacturers of building materials will be guided by them.
Now it is difficult to say how the new rules will influence the growth of prices for construction materials. At the same time, we expect that the draft law introduced a declaration of indicators, with its mandatory registration in the Unified State Electronic System in the field of construction, will significantly improve the quality of domestic products, as well as help prevent low-quality and hazardous materials from entering the market.
Equally important is the creation of an effective system of state supervision, as excessive bureaucratization in this matter can significantly reduce the competitiveness of domestic producers.
In general, we certainly support the adoption of draft law 2698, and we will expect the fulfillment of other obligations necessary for Ukraine to obtain an “industrial visa-free” regime.
