The annual meeting of the IECEE CMC (Certification Management
Committee) took place at the end of June, this time as physical meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, hosted by the Canadian IECEE Member Body, CSA.
CMC is the controlling board of the successful international IECEE/CB Scheme, having currently 54 member countries and 93 national certification bodies (NCBs) with 559 associated testing labs (CBTL)/ SPTLs) and >2000 authorized manufacturers’ labs (CTFs) worldwide.
More than 127 000 CB Test Certificates were issued last year (again up from the previous year), thus contributing more and more to the world trade of safe electrical and electronic products.
This year’s meeting was attended physically by about 70 persons onsite and about 50 remotely, representing
industry as well as the NCBs and authorities from the IECEE member countries + from the IEC Central Office in
Geneva, and this time about 20 observers (including from Indonesia, South Africa, Thailand and UAE).
Mr. Morten Andersen attended as the main delegate for Nemko, which is proud to be amongst the leading NCBs within this important scheme, having currently 19 CBTLs in different countries.
The editor of this newsletter attended also this time as head of delegation on behalf of the Norwegian IECEE
Member Body NEK and as member of some sub-committees.
Amongst the matters discussed this time were:
- Much discussion about a proposal from NEK/Nemko regarding use of the European standard ETSI 303 645 in the CB scheme. It concerns IoT cyber security for electrical consumer products, as household appliances and IT & AV equipment, which represent 2/3 of the CB scheme scope. Due to opposition from the US og Canada, the proposal was not readily approved, while left to a special Task Force to consider pros & cons and to prepare a proposal for voting per correspondence.
- The Indonesian delegation was asked if still requiring bilateral agreement at governmental level for CB Test Certificates to be accepted for national approval of imported products, which goes against basic IECEE rules. They could unfortunately not give a clear answer to this.
- An IEC Global Impact Fund is established (based on 1% of IECs overall capital and resources), to support various charitable purposes related to United Nations’ SDGs (Sustainability Development Goals).
- A special Task Force is in process of proposing different concrete improvements regarding national acceptance of CB Test Certificates in all the member countries in line with the basic rules of the CB scheme.
- Much discussion about a proposal for new special certificate templates for components, which is not supported by Nemko, amongst others.
- The work with a new service for certification of radio/wireless units is in good progress. At the outset, it will be limited to integration of pre-certified modules into end products.
For further information please contact Morten.Andersen@nemko.com
(Article is written by T.Sollie)