How important is an Electric Productions Inspection with International Trade Regulation?

Electric and electronic productions are one of the main export products of the country and the expansion of its value has surged continuously every year, total export volume was over 30,000 million dollars. The main markets are China, the United States, Japan and European countries. With the global economic recession, export markets have been slowing down which require entrepreneurs to adapt themselves in order to get through the crisis. However, besides the reduction of consumer’s needs and the confrontation of competitive pricing, another compelling factor which could potentially hinder future exports is the international trading regulations called Non-Tariff Barrier / Measures (NMTs) that act as trade barrier. The NTMs lead to the following restrictions : safety, products, production processing, raw material, and energy-saving standards. Therefore, entrepreneurs must inevitably follow the defined restrictions of trading regulations which will increase the number of products inspections accordingly.

Why do we need Inspections?
Products inspection is directly relates to enforcing NTMs regulations in which NTMs can be viewed as technical obstacles and can be separated into several enforcement standards. The standard determination can be divided into many levels :
1. Company Standard including Toyota and GM which will be accepted as a company levels.
2. Industry Standard including JASO (Japanese Automobile Standards Organization), JSMA (Japan Spring Manufacturers Association), ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers).
3. National Standard including JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard), DIN (Deutsche Normen), TIS (Thai Industrial Standard) which will be accepted in some countries.
4. Area Standard including EN European Standard.
5. International Standard including ISO (International Organization Standardization), IEC (International Electro Technical Commission), ITU (International Telecommunication Union).

As such, each trading measure was found to be continuously associated with the product life cycle from
1. raw material availability related with RoHs and REACH.
2. production processing related with GMP, HACCP and Eco Design.
3. products associated with LVD, EMC, CE-mark, and Energy Labeling
4. Waste related with WEEE. Therefore, if entrepreneurs want to produce products conforming to the trading regulations of each market, they need to consider several standards thoroughly

Inspection and Certified Approaches
For the inspection and certification of any products, manufacturers must know where their product market shares are, and consider if there are trading regulations, rules, or measures that are being enforced in a particular market. Then manufacturers should consider planning to inspect and certify products which involves testing, calibration, and inspection methods covering every step of production in a wide range of design, raw material supply, production processing, and inspection after production. Therefore, a perfect preparation  could result in an effective inspection, save costs, allow the products to easily to the regulation, save inspection time, and lower the number of inspections. However in products inspections, having reliable equipment, tools, certification, along with accreditation are musts.

The inspection and certification can be done by an elected association of each market. Currently, there are both government and private parties including an electric and electronic institute, the Electrical and Electronic Products Testing Center : PTEC, and an automobile institute

The Effect of Non-confirming Products
Regulations can affect many entrepreneurs including manufacturers, suppliers, products importers, and sales people. If they do not follow the regulations, the effect can be the following : delayed entry of goods into markets, cancelled distribution, revoked distribution rights, returned goods to the original export countries, imposed fines, wasted production time, and wasted expenditure costs due to reproduction of goods. Therefore, entrepreneurs have to continuously follow news in order to adapt their production to correspond with upcoming measures.

However in the future, the tendency of international agreements will be rising. The agreements could reduce tax restrictions, but would increase technical restrictions instead. Sale able products must have excellent quality. Therefore, efficient inspection is an elimination of trading claims, helps upgrade products to be safe to consumers and the environment, and results in products acceptance which helps gain market share automatically.