Exporting to the United States – A Team Canada Inc Publication

7.4 Technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment

You should find out whether there are any technical requirements related to the sale of your products or services in the United States. These requirements may be contained in government laws and/or regulations and, depending on the product or service, requirements may have been established at the federal, state and/or local levels.

At the federal level in the U.S., there is a regulatory policy requirement under the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to consider the use of consensus standards and to use them where this will achieve regulatory objectives. The majority of these standards are American in origin.

Generally speaking, you can reference standards in legislation either directly or indirectly. In the latter case, the legislation establishes a mechanism for recognizing standards. For example, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Act requires the Consumer Product Safety Commission to defer to voluntary standards unless it can be shown that the standards fail to meet the regulatory objectives.

Conformity-assessment procedures help ensure that products, services, or systems have the required characteristics, and that these characteristics are consistent from product to product, from service to service, and from system to system. Conformity assessment includes sampling, testing, inspection, certification, and quality and environmental system assessment and registration. It also includes accreditation of the competence of those activities by a third party and recognition (usually by a government agency) of an accreditation program's capability.

In the year 2000, Part 287 was added to Title 15 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter II, subchapter J. It outlines guidance for each federal agency to use in evaluating the efficacy and efficiency of its conformity-assessment activities.

The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) employs a team of bilingual information professionals who can provide free information on where to buy publications about Canadian, international and foreign standards. SCC has also set up a bilingual, custom research service, which can provide you with personalized information on a growing range of standards, legislation, and certification issues in many world markets. Price quotes are available upon request for the following research services:

• identification of applicable standards, regulations and conformity-assessment procedures that would apply to the market acceptance of a product;
• identification of competent authorities to contact in Canada or abroad;
• scopes, tables of contents, and forewords of standards that are currently maintained in SCC's Technical Document Centre;
• verification of the accuracy and thoroughness of standards listings obtained through other sources (date of publication, latest amendments, all parts of a standard, etc.);
• identification of Canadian, international or foreign standards in a particular area; and
• identification of standards published or under development by a specific technical committee.

The United States and Canada are required, under Chapter 9 of the NAFTA and under provisions of the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement, to notify their trading partners of any newly proposed technical regulations and conformity-assessment procedures, or changes to existing ones. In Canada, notifications are received through the WTO/NAFTA Enquiry Point operated by the SCC on behalf of International Trade Canada.

The Enquiry Point also operates a service called Export Alert!, which will help you keep abreast of regulatory changes in global markets. This alert service, the only one of its kind in Canada, is provided by the SCC with the support of International Trade Canada.

Export Alert! sends you an e-mail warning when foreign (including U.S.) regulators are changing the requirements that apply to your products. The service gives you:

• automatic notification of proposed regulatory changes in your field of interest;
• access to full texts of draft regulatory measures;
• the opportunity to comment on changes.

You can register for the service, free of charge, at the SCC's Export Alert! Web page.

Several agencies test Canadian products for conformity with U.S. standards. The two major agencies are:

CSA International

CSA International is a voluntary, non-profit membership organization that is also a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL). This means that its marks are recognized as valid in the United States. Refer to their Product Areas Web page for information about the kinds of products for which standards exist.

Underwriters Laboratories Inc.

Underwriters Laboratories is an independent, non-profit, product safety testing and certification organization. UL has both Canadian and U.S. branches and certifies products using several marks. Some are for Canadian standards, some for American, and some for both.

In the United States, the Department of Commerce works to ensure the recognition and use of internationally recognized standards, both in the U.S. and abroad. It also works with other U.S. government agencies and foreign governments to solve market-access problems related to foreign standards.

You can find out more about U.S. standards development and U.S. regulatory initiatives from the following organizations and documents:

• The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private, non-profit organization that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system.
• The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a non-regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Commerce Department's Technology Administration. NIST develops and promotes measurement, standards, and technology to enhance U.S. productivity and facilitate trade.
• U.S. Office of Management and Budget, September 17, 2003, M-03-21, Circular No. A-4, "Regulatory Analysis."
• National Institute of Science and Technology, "Guidance on Federal Conformity Assessment Activities, Final Policy Guidance," 15 CFR Part 287, Federal Register August 10, 2000, Page 48894-48902.
• U.S. General Accounting Office, "Balancing Federal and State Responsibilities for Standard Setting and Implementation," Report to the Chairman, Committee on Environment and Public Works, U.S. Senate, GAO-02-495, March 2002.
• "Report on United States Barriers to Trade and Investment 2005," European Commission, Brussels, December 2003.