Scrutiny of international agreements; treaties considered on 20 February 2019 Contents

Agreements reported for information

Agreement on Mutual Recognition in relation to Conformity Assessment between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of New Zealand (CP 27, 2019)1

1.The UK-New Zealand Mutual Recognition Agreement in relation to Conformity Assessment was laid on 1 February 2019, and the scrutiny period is scheduled to end on 11 March. It was considered by the EU Internal Market Sub-Committee at its meeting on 14 February. A brief explanation of conformity assessments is given in Box 1.

Box 1: Conformity assessments

Certain products and manufacturing practices are subject to a ‘conformity assessment’ to verify their compliance with relevant product standards and rules. In some cases, the assessment must be carried out by conformity assessment bodies (CABs), accredited at national level.

The EU has concluded Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) with several third countries. These agreements usually provide that one party will accept conformity assessment results (e.g. testing or certification) issued by the other party’s designated CABs to show compliance with the first party’s requirements. In other words, they authorise CABs of the other party to test products against the first party’s rules. They generally do not provide for mutual acceptance of standards and regulations or of the equivalence of such standards or regulations. The agreements also typically lay down conditions for the designation of CABs and for the recognition of conformity assessment. MRAs thus facilitate trade by allowing exporters to obtain certifications required by the importing country in their home country.

2.The Agreement is intended to ensure continuity of the existing European Community (EC)-New Zealand MRA, in which the UK currently participates by virtue of its membership of the EU. The Government’s Explanatory Memorandum (EM) states that the Agreement will enable UK manufacturers to continue having their products tested against New Zealand regulations by accredited UK CABs, and vice versa, and that UK and New Zealand CABs recognised under the EC-New Zealand MRA will not have to be re-designated. According to the EM, the Agreement also ensures that attestations of conformity issued by UK and New Zealand CABs under the EC-New Zealand MRA will remain valid. The effect of Article 8 of the Agreement, however, appears to be wider, in requiring that prior and still valid EU27 attestations should also remain valid for their lifespan, including in the UK.

3.The Agreement incorporates the precursor European Community (EC) Agreement2mutatis mutandis’—in other words, rather than spelling out each technical amendment, it states that all references to an EU body, office, institution or location in precursor agreement will be read as references to the UK equivalent, and that references to EU legislation will be read as references to relevant UK law.

4.Like the EC-New Zealand MRA, the Agreement will cover the following sectors: (i) medicinal products (inspection of good manufacturing Practices and batch certification); (ii) medical devices; (iii) telecommunications terminal equipment; (iv) low voltage equipment; (v) electromagnetic compatibility; (vi) machinery; and (vii) pressure equipment. Unlike in the UK-Australia MRA, automotive products are not included.

5.We note that once the Agreement takes effect, each Party will have to notify the other of expected changes to the relevant regulation at least 60 days before their entry into force. We also note that, consistent with the EC-New Zealand MRA, the Agreement will be administered by a joint committee responsible for its functioning. The Agreement allows for provisional application prior to domestic ratification.

6.We report the UK-New Zealand Agreement on Mutual Recognition in relation to Conformity Assessment to the House for information.

Agreement on Mutual Recognition in relation to Conformity Assessment, Certificates and Markings between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of Australia (CP 28, 2019)3

7.The UK-Australia Mutual Recognition Agreement in relation to Conformity Assessment, Certificates and Markings was laid on 1 February 2019, and the scrutiny period is scheduled to end on 11 March. It was considered by the EU Internal Market Sub-Committee at its meeting on 14 February.

8.The UK-Australia MRA is intended to ensure continuity of the existing European Community (EC)-Australia MRA,4 in which the UK currently participates by virtue of its membership of the EU. The Agreement will enable UK manufacturers to continue having their products tested against Australian regulations by accredited UK CABs, and vice versa, and that UK and Australian CABs recognised under the EC-Australia MRA will not have to be re-designated. The Agreement also ensures that attestations of conformity issued by UK and Australian CABs under the EC-Australia MRA will remain valid.

9.Like the UK-New Zealand MRA, the UK-Australia Agreement applies the terms of the existing EC-Australia MRA ‘mutatis mutandis’ (see paragraph 3). It thus covers the same sectors as the EC-Australia agreement: (i) medicinal products—inspection of Good Manufacturing Practices and batch certification; (ii) medical devices; (iii) telecommunications terminal equipment; (iv) low voltage equipment; (v) electromagnetic compatibility; (vi) machinery; (vii) pressure equipment; and (viii) automotive products (not including whole vehicles).

10.We note that once the Agreement takes effect, each party will have to notify the other of expected changes to relevant regulations at least 60 days before their entry into force. We also note that, consistent with the EC-Australia MRA, the Agreement will be administered by a joint committee responsible for its functioning.

11.Unlike the UK-New Zealand MRA, the Agreement does not allow for provisional application prior to domestic ratification. Furthermore, Article 2(3) of the Agreement states that “the incorporated sectoral annexes … have less than treaty status”. It is unclear whether any future amendments to these annexes would be subject parliamentary scrutiny under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.5

12.We report the UK-Australia Agreement on Mutual Recognition in relation to Conformity Assessment, Certificates and Markings to the House for information.

Agreement on Trade in Organic Products between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Chile (CP 33, 2019)6

13.The Agreement was laid on 6 February 2019, and the scrutiny period is scheduled to end on 14 March. It was considered by the EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee at its meeting on 13 February.

14.This Agreement replicates the 2017 Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Chile on trade in organic products.7 It is based on mutual recognition of the equivalence of the two parties’ rules on organic production as well as related systems of control. It should be noted that this goes further than normal mutual recognition agreements, which merely provide for accepting attestations of conformity issued by foreign bodies for domestic rules. The Agreement also sets rules on labelling and on requirements for monitoring and reporting on whether organic standards are being upheld. Other than the establishment of a UK-Chile Joint Committee to “ensure that this Agreement operates properly”,8 the only substantive modifications to the EU-Chile Agreement have been to remove references to EU logos and websites and replace them with UK ones.

15.Providing domestic procedures are completed by both Parties in time, this Agreement will allow the trade in organic products between the UK and Chile to continue after Brexit on the same basis as now. Article 9 of the Agreement also provides for provisional application in circumstances where “such domestic procedures as are required” are completed. The precise requirements of this provision are not clear from the Agreement or the accompanying EM.

16.The fact that the EU-Chile Agreement and the UK-Chile Agreement have separate Joint Committees which can agree changes to the list of products recognised as organic9 means that, over time, the EU-Chile Agreement and the UK-Chile Agreement may diverge. As the Agreement is based on Chile’s recognition of the current EU organic production rules applied in the UK, there is the possibility that if these rules diverge the government of Chile could request changes to the list of UK products recognised as organic.

17.We report the UK-Chile Agreement on Trade in Organic Products for information.


1 Agreement on Mutual Recognition in relation to Conformity Assessment between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of New Zealand: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cs-new-zealand-no22019-uknew-zealand-agreement-on-mutual-recognition-in-relation-to-conformity-assessment [accessed 13 February 2019]

2 Agreement on mutual recognition in relation to conformity assessment between the European Community and New Zealand, OJ L 229 (17 August 1998), p 62, as amended [accessed 14 February 2019]

3 Agreement on Mutual Recognition in relation to Conformity Assessment, Certificates and Markings between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of Australia: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cs-australia-no22019-ukaustralia-agreement-on-mutual-recognition-in-relation-to-conformity-assessment-certificates-and-markings [accessed 13 February 2019]

4 Agreement on mutual recognition in relation to conformity assessment, certificates and markings between the European Community and Australia, OJ L 229 (17 August 1998), p 3 [accessed 14 February 2019]

5 Compare our recommendation in European Union Committee, Scrutiny of international agreements: treaties considered on 12 February 2019 (29th Report, Session 2017–19, HL Paper 287), para 4. Article 12(4)(a) and (f) of the underlying EC-Australia MRA Agreement permits the Joint Committee to amend the sectoral annexes and to adopt new sectoral annexes.

6 Agreement on Trade in Organic Products between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Chile: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cs-chile-no12019-ukchile-agreement-on-trade-in-organic-products [accessed 13 February 2019]

7 Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Chile on trade in organic products, OJ L 331 (14 December 2017), p 4 [accessed 14 February 2019]

8 Agreement on Trade in Organic Products between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Chile, Article 7: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cs-chile-no12019-ukchile-agreement-on-trade-in-organic-products [accessed 20 February 2019]

9 Agreement on Trade in Organic Products between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Chile, Article 8: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cs-chile-no12019-ukchile-agreement-on-trade-in-organic-products [accessed 20 February 2019]




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