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EU-US: Call for proposals for regulatory cooperation activities

The European Commission is inviting comments from all interested stakeholder groups on potential areas for regulatory co-operation with the United States.

Deadline:  23/04/2019

In particular, comments in the following areas are welcome

  • Conformity Assessment: a possible future agreement on conformity assessment aiming at a horizontal approach to facilitate the acceptance of certificates issued by the conformity assessment bodies of the other Party in a number of selected sectors such as electric and electronic equipment, machinery, medical devices, toys, recreational crafts, pressure equipment, construction products, measuring instruments, etc.

    In this regard, the Commission would welcome input by stakeholders, in particular 
    • by exporters as to the type of barriers and administrative burden they face in trans-Atlantic trade in relation to the certification of compliance of products with the legislation of the importing party
    • by conformity assessment bodies established in the territory of the EU as regards possible difficulties in seeking accreditation or designation to certify for export to the US under certain conformity assessment schemes
       
  • Dialogue on standards: the EU and the US for historical reasons adopted divergent standards in many sectors, leading to high adaptation costs for exporters. To facilitate trade in the future and increase regulatory convergence, cooperation on standards would focus especially on areas where no standards exist yet. Additive manufacturing, robotics and technical textiles have been identified as possible areas of cooperation. The Commission is also interested in receiving stakeholder input regarding other possible standard areas where such cooperation could bring trade benefits.
     
  • Regulatory cooperation in sectors: the Commission would want to receive stakeholder input on concrete initiatives for regulatory cooperation in sectors with the potential of facilitating bilateral trade, while fully respecting EU levels of protection.

More information

Full call for proposals: EU-US regulatory cooperation activities