China to strengthen product certification process

China will intensify international cooperation to promote mutual recognition of standards to reduce repetition in testing and certification of products and services to facilitate international trade, a top market regulatory official said on Wednesday.

The country’s testing and certification industry will also make further opening-up to other countries to encourage foreign investment in this area, Gan Lin, vice-minister of the State Administration for Market Regulation, said at a forum during the China International Import Expo in Shanghai.

The accreditation and certification industry has been developing rapidly since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, and China has signed more than 120 mutual recognition agreements with other countries, including major economies such as the United States and Russia, said Bo Yumin, deputy chief for certification supervision at the State Administration for Market Regulation.

Zhang Xiaogang, president of QuaLink Brand International Certification Alliance, an organization based in Beijing that promotes quality certification, said international exchanges and cooperation in certification can facilitate trade and help achieve universal recognition of standards and certification.

“International trade is transforming to a stage that universal standards, testing and inspection become more and more important,” said Oliver Butler, executive vice-president of Bureau Veritas, a leading provider of testing and inspection services based in France.

“Through mutual recognition of the testing and certification results, it can greatly increase the efficiency of imports and exports, reduce the business operational cost and, at the same time, enable a deeper cooperation and development for international trade,” he said.