‘Authorised representative’ in Europe now required
A new European Union regulation that took effect in July means South African boat builders now need an authorised representative in Europe to export into the EU.
That’s the warning from South African certification expert Peter Jacops, who says exporters face a rude awakening should they fail to comply with the new conditions. To access the EU market it is no longer sufficient to have a new model certified by a qualified assessor; the CE mark now requires builders to nominate somebody resident in the EU zone to handle quality control queries, Jacops says.
In addition the authorised representative must verify and have access to all compliance-related documents, as per the requirements of the Market Surveillance Regulation which has been in the pipeline for years but is now finally in place.
The MSR is applicable to all products entering the EU, not just boats, and stems from the rapid rise of E-commerce and associated certification challenges. “These days if you want to buy Xmas lights you can order them from Amazon – but if they are faulty and your house burns down then there is nobody to be held accountable in Europe,” Jacops told SABBEX. “This has become a huge problem.”
However under the new regime the authorised representative is responsible for ensuring the product has the necessary paperwork, and can therefore engage the relevant quality control authority in the event of a problem.
Jacops said the authorised representative need not be a professional assessor; a boat builder could nominate whomever he or she chose, so long as that person was mandated to have access to the required documents. He said builders may not wish to entrust dealers with this task due to concerns around intellectual property: “The AR is just the representative of the manufacturer – it could be your cousin or niece or nephew. But it should be somebody you trust because you will be giving them all the tools they need to build the boat,” Jacops said.
Builders also had the option of hiring the services of a firm – such as www.certification-experts.com — with knowledge of the relevant regulations and certification processes. Said Jacops: “Yes you would pay a fee for that but the company would have a legal background and they would know exactly what needs to be done and what needs to be given to the authorities.”
Declaration forms have long requested details of an AR, but it was not mandatory. SA builders simply ignored it. However doing so now was likely to result in problems. “I can tell that nobody is aware of this (new regulation). I don’t know when but at some stage there is going to be a French customs official who will tell one of our boat builders that their boat can’t come in. It is going to happen, for sure,” says Jacops. “And when it does people will say, Peter, why didn’t you tell us.”
“So now I’m informing you.”