Rick, · A-priori verification schemes, with accompanying auditing, accreditation, registration and certification provisions do not provide flexible, simple, cost-effective, minimally bureaucratic, and not overly burdensome regulations
· A-posteriori surveillance schemes, depending on a simple global symbol and a Declaration of Conformity regime, will provide flexible, simple, cost-effective, minimally bureaucratic, and not overly burdensome regulations ·That cannot be done overnight, even if everyone was willing, but as the various nations are changing their regulatory environments to become capital and technology attractors, let's make sure we don't close off the avenues that are most promising. The EU Conformity Assessment modules, clearly show that you can move from a certification regime to a Declaration of Conformity regime, without doing away with certification, where customers need that assurance, as the back-up for a declaration of conformity. Therefore: Support development of a Conformity Assessment Agreement (CAA) based on the Declaration of Conformity, with standard back-up modules for product testing and verification, on a global basis, through the WTO ITA2 negotiations Support the use of private sector driven, international standards as the base for technical regulations, globally Support the principle of One Standard - One Test - Suppliers Declaration of Conformity everywhere
