GOST R Certificate of Conformity
Most consumer goods, building materials and constructions, equipment, raw materials and substances are subject to obligatory certification under the GOST R System. Availability of a GOST R Certificate of Conformity is an obligatory condition for introducing such goods to the Russian market.
In order to issue a certificate of conformity, accredited testing laboratories carry out certification tests for compliance with the established parameters. Then a report is drawn up based on the test results, and then a certificate of conformity for the product is issued. It should be noted that the certificate of conformity is only issued by the certification authorities accredited under the State Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology.
The necessity of the obligatory certification of imported products is determined based on a code of the Foreign Economic Activity Commodity Nomenclature in accordance with the "List of goods requiring confirmation of the obligatory certification when releasing to the customs territory of the Russian Federation" (Letter of the State Customs Committee 01-06/47124 dated 28.11.2002). If the code of your products in on that List, the goods are subject to certification.
If the goods are not on the List, the applicant may carry out voluntary certification in order to confirm the products' compliance with the standards, technical specification and other documents determined by the applicant. This will allow confirming the high quality of the products and their competitiveness and will have a positive effect on the customers' choice.
The rules provide for several product certification schemes under the GOST R System. In the most common use are:
- Issuance of a certificate "for a serial production" (or "to the manufacturer") – issued for a period of 1 to 3 years depending on the products, test results, state of production and other factors;
- Issuance of a certificate "for a contract" – provided for products imported in lots for a certain period, usually 1-2 years (No2), or for a certain quantity stipulated by the contract;
- Simplified scheme for unique samples or small lots. In this case, the certificate is issued based on the declaration of conformity with attached documents confirming the products' compliance with the established requirements. These may be test reports or an ISO 9001 quality system certificate. Tests are not performed in this case.
One of the peculiarities of the certification in the GOST R System is that if the products are subject to hygienic expertise, then a hygienic report is required for obtaining the certificate. And if the products are on the list of goods requiring confirmation of compliance with the fire safety requirements, then it is necessary to draw up a fire certificate or a fire safety declaration of conformity. The numbers of these documents should be entered into the GOST R certificate of conformity.