Fourth Annual Meeting of the Sino-German Working Group on Product Safety
China
The fourth annual meeting of the Sino-German Working Group on Product Safety took place on 23 June, 2014 at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in Berlin. Represented by Director General Dr. Sven Halldorn and Deputy Head Liu Weijun (Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People’s Republic of China, CNCA), the BMWi, the Chinese General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), and the CNCA discussed the progress of bilateral cooperation on product safety so far.
The meeting was split into a morning session on the topic of product safety and market surveillance, led on the Chinese side by the AQSIQ, and an afternoon session on the topic of conformity assessment and accreditation, led on the Chinese side by CNCA.
During these two session both sides emphasized the importance of bilateral cooperation on quality infrastructure, which was also reflected in the high attendance of representatives from other authorities and industry on both sides. The implementation of the working plan of the Working Group, signed last year by BMWi, AQSIQ and CNCA, has been significantly advanced through technical exchanges in a number of project lines.
After a recap of the work of the previous year, this year’s working group meeting again was in the spirit of open exchange on current topics of product safety. Among other things, AQSQI informed the German side about new reforms in the area of export inspection as well as the recall system within the automotive industry. CNCA also updated participants about recent reforms within the certification system CCC. The BMWi, in turn, also briefed the Chinese partners about important aspects of risk assessment of products within European market surveillance frameworks as well as about exchanges of experiences between conformity assessment institutions in Germany.
Both sides agreed to further advance bilateral cooperation within the WG. The implementation of the working plan will be continued, while new topics and aspects of bilateral interest can constantly be proposed and incorporated.