OrlekThe commitment made in 2018 by the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) to introduce a certificate of conformity that would be done both overseas and locally by approved conformity assessment bodies before goods were despatched and put out to market has failed to materialise.NRCS spokesperson Daniel Ramarumo told FTW that all assessments continued to be undertaken internally by NRCS staff. It’s one of the propositions jointly agreed with the private sector and industry associations in 2018 and sanctioned by the department of trade and industry (dti). Founder of the EU Chamber of Commerce and Industry in South Africa, Stefan Sakoschek, told FTW he was under tremendous pressure from the EU and other business communities to wrap up and implement what had been decided under previous trade and industry minister Dr Rob Davies.Ramarumo is however confident that the NRCS has delivered on several other commitments – like the r isk-ba sed approach – to ensure that Letters of Authority don’t breach the 120-day target. The process is still, however, manualAt the end of last year the mathematical average turnaround time stood at approximately 80 calendar days. “However, for the current financial period to date approximately 90% of the applications were processed within the target 120 days. Approximately 10% of the applications were outside the 120 days, which is a marked improvement compared to the last financial year where 74% was achieved.”Mark Saunders of the SA Domestic Appliances Association said the risk-based approach to LOA processing was being used for electro technical goods. “It hasn’t had a meaningful benefit but turnaround times of LOA applications have been good,” he t old F T W. “Waiting time for LOAs is no longer than 120 days but a substantial number are less than that.” “This is not the case on the automotive and lighting side,” said Sakoschek who described the turnaround as “pretty d isma l ”. “But the LOA issuance turnaround time is only the ”tip of the iceberg”, as most imported products are unregulated, or not subject to an LOA application,” said Sakoschek. “On the pharma side, the new entity (replacing MCC) is called SAHPR A. They are the only ones who have actually implemented a comprehensive solution and a pre-import verification requirement.”In Sakoschek’s view the idea would be to implement a similar system across all regulators, including for example Icasa – the communications authority in charge of end user terminals such as cellphones and laptops. Icasa too is contemplating self-declaration, “yet another regulator doing its own thing”.“The bottom line is that we still have overall endless issues with substandard imports that the NRCS/police etc are still spending millions destroying. The NRCS has committed to addressing the problem upstream comprehensively, but basically have had limited success.” Ramarumo disagrees. “The destruction of counterfeit goods shows the success of the regulator in detecting and uncovering non-compliant products, thus achieving the objectives of protecting the safety and health of consumers and protecting the environment." Another issue of contention that will need to be addressed with some vigour is online sales. Ramarumo concedes that a lot still needs to be done. “Our starting point is to educate the regulated entities on the requirements, an exercise which we have started. “In addition, in conjunction with our partners we have worked with a major retailer to ensure that energy efficiency labels of household appliances are advertised with the product online or in the print media. From time to time inspectors check online listings of products to ensure they comply.”Recent FTW articles about the online sale of non-compliant baby seats, which were a threat to the safety of toddlers, brought this issue into sharp relief.
INSERT: The LOA issuance turnaround time is only the ”tip of the iceberg”, as most imported products are unregulated.– Stefan Sakoschek