Purpose of АСАА: opening the access for industrial products to the markets of Ukraine and EU member states on the basis of mutual recognition of product conformity assessments.

Priority sectors of industrial products for the purposes of АСАА:

• low-voltage electrical equipment;
• electromagnetic compatibility of equipment;
• machinery.

Meaning of АСАА:

• product requirements of Ukrainian technical regulations are identical to requirements of the relevant EU directives;
• the standards giving presumption of conformity with requirements of technical regulations, and the lists of these standards are identical to the corresponding harmonized European standards and their lists;
• the requirements to designated bodies are identical to the requirements to notified bodies in the EU;
• Ukrainian manufacturers will be permitted to apply the European conformity mark “СЕ” onto their products;
• conformity assessments performed by Ukrainian bodies will be recognized in the EU and may be recognized in the future in Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Turkey, United States, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Prospects of АСАА:

• possibility of expanding it onto other sectors of industrial products listed in Annex ІІІ to the Association Agreement;
• inclusion to ACAA of other sectors of industrial products which have priority for the Parties.

What has already been done for the purpose of entering into АСАА:

• Three Laws of Ukraine were passed:

• amending certain legislative acts of Ukraine to implement legislative acts of the European Union on technical regulation (No 2740 of 06.06.2019), which entered into force on 03.07.2019 (certain provisions will enter into force on 03.07.2020);
• amending certain legislative acts of Ukraine due to passage of the Law of Ukraine on Standardization (No 124 of 20.09.2019), which will enter into force on 16.10.2020;
• amending certain legislative acts of Ukraine to reduce pressure on businesses from market supervision authorities (No 367 of 12.12.2019), signed by the President of Ukraine on 23.12.2019 and entering into force upon expiration of three months after its publication date.

• A resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approving the Procedure of providing payment-free consulting support by government market supervision authorities to business entities concerning government market supervision (No 75 of 12.02.2020) was adopted as required by Article 17 (1) (8) of the Law of Ukraine on Government Market Supervision and Control of Non-Food Products, the translation of which was provided to the European party in March 2020.
• Three technical regulations conformant with the EU legislation were adopted in three priority sectors of industrial products (low-voltage electrical equipment, electromagnetic compatibility of equipment, machinery).
• All lists of national standards identical to harmonized European standards were approved for the purposes of application of technical regulations (1017 national standards on low-voltage electrical equipment; 201 national standards on electromagnetic compatibility of equipment; 913 national standards on machinery).
• The infrastructure of designated conformity assessment bodies was formed in the priority sectors (42 bodies were designated).

For your reference: in Germany, the infrastructure of designated bodies responsible for assessing conformity with the Technical Regulation on Safety of Machinery and the Technical Regulation on Electromagnetic Compatibility of Equipment is comprised of 23 and 12 bodies, respectively, for the total of 35; in Poland, 16 and 14, respectively, for the total of 30; Turkey has 15 designated bodies responsible for assessing conformity with the Technical Regulation on Safety of Machinery only.

• The European party was informed about the readiness of the Ukrainian party for a preliminary assessment mission for quality infrastructure institutions.
• Proposals concerning the expert mission as part of ТАІЕХ external assistance regarding preliminary assessment of Ukrainian quality infrastructure were sent to the European Commission.

What needs to be done to organize a EU’s preliminary assessment mission for quality infrastructure:

• Ensuring passage of the draft Law of Ukraine amending the Customs Code of Ukraine due to passage of the Law of Ukraine on Standardization (registration No 2477 of 21.11.2019). The amendments concern observance of the principle of voluntary application of international, national and sectoral standards. The Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, a specialized committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, did not review this draft law yet. The draft law has not been included to the draft agenda of the second session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the ninth convocation. The Main Scientific and Expert Directorate of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine prepared no opinion concerning the above draft law.

Further implementation of ACAA may cover the majority of Ukrainian exports to the EU. It concerns, first of all, high-tech products: mechanical engineering, instrument making, medical equipment and radio equipment.