Saudi Arabian Requirements for Product Safety

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has legislated a set of product certification requirements that address user safety and product performance issues, as well as compliance with certain Islamic codes. The International Conformity Certification Program (ICCP) was created to institutionalize compliance requirements of the law. It is controlled by the Saudi national standards body, the Saudi Arabian Standards Organization (SASO).

The program encompasses a wide range of products, electrical and nonelectrical. SASO has sorted the covered products into five groups: toys (Group I), electrical and electronic products (Group II), automotive products (Group III), chemical products (Group IV), and "other" products (Group V). Electrical and electronic products listed for inclusion in Group II are presented in Table I.

This article provides information about the ICCP that manufacturers wishing to export Group II products to Saudi Arabia must have.

Table I. Group II (electrical and electronic) products covered by the Saudi International Conformity Certification Program.

Standards and Requirements Applicable to Electrical Products

A partial list of standards applicable to electrical products for sale in Saudi Arabia appears in Table II. SASO has mainly adopted IEC documents as the basis for its own standards, and not UL standards. This means that manufacturers of products not in compliance with IEC standards, or with harmonized versions such as those adopted in the European Union, may experience difficulties in meeting the Saudi requirements. (SASO is understood perhaps to be reviewing some UL standards with a view to possible acceptance, but no outcome has been reported.) Only in very few cases are the Saudi standards substantially different from the IEC specifications. Generally, variations simply recognize the Saudi voltages (127 or 220 V, at 60 Hz) and higher ambient temperatures.

The Saudi requirements do not stop at electrical safety. The ICCP legislation established a number of "essential requirements" related to protection of the public health and safety, national security, protection of public morals, protection of the environment, and prevention of deceptive practices. The SASO/IEC standards apply to the first of these considerations, but satisfaction of requirements in the other areas can best be achieved by gathering experience in the Saudi marketplace.

It is important that no product packaging carry any image that might be viewed as offensive to the Islamic religion. Such images include crosses, inappropriately dressed women, representations of pigs, and depictions of alcohol consumption. While this may seem a strange thing to mention in an article focused on electrical safety testing, the companies appointed to oversee and ensure compliance with Saudi electrical safety requirements have also been instructed to check for acknowledgment of these cultural sensitivities. Also, Arabic must be one of the languages in which product packaging and user manuals and documentation are printed.

Table II. Partial listing of standards applicable to electrical products offered for sale in Saudi Arabia, by Group II product category.

Ways to Comply with the ICCP

There are three methods of complying with the legislation. Underlying the organization of these procedures is the vital importance that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia places on compliance.

Self-certification compliance methods can lead to abuses, either deliberate or accidental. Declarations of conformity to the wrong standards can often result, based upon incomplete testing or no testing at all. The Saudi Arabian certification system was created in the light of these shortcomings.

To be as thorough as possible in attempting to eliminate noncompliant products from importation, two of the three routes to compliance depend on independent shipment-by-shipment inspection of products (Methods 1 and 2 below). These inspections take place at either the manufacturer's or the exporter's premises prior to dispatch of each shipment. The objective is in many ways similar to that served by factory inspections in many product certification schemes. The inspections ensure that all of the actual products to be shipped are compliant, and not just the units that passed laboratory tests some months earlier.

However, recognizing that manufacturers often need time to modify products, these two routes are based upon compliance not with the strict letter of the standards but with the Saudi essential requirements and the key safety clauses of the standards. Details are spelled out in a series of compliance verification guidelines (CVGs) available from the SASO ICCP offices.

The manufacturer may chose the most appropriate of the methods here outlined, and also the approved laboratory in which testing will take place.

Method 1: Shipment-by-Shipment Compliance Verification. The simplest way of complying with the ICCP legislation, particularly for companies that do business with Saudi Arabia only infrequently, is to arrange for product approval on a shipment-by-shipment basis. Manufacturers should first contact the relevant SASO country office. The office will arrange for the consignment to be inspected, and for samples to be selected for testing at an SASO-approved laboratory. A manufacturer may deal directly with the laboratory or may authorize the SASO country office to make the necessary arrangements. During the physical inspection, compliance with the cultural essential requirements described above will also be checked.

Test data from alternative, non-SASO-approved, laboratories may be accepted, although in such circumstances the reports would need to be checked by an approved laboratory. In addition, such reports would only be acceptable if they came from a laboratory with a recognized accreditation, were based upon recent test data, were clearly traceable to the product to be shipped, and were responsive to the requirements of the appropriate standards.

Upon completion of a successful inspection, the SASO country office issues a certificate of conformity which should travel with the exported products to facilitate customs clearance when the shipment arrives in Saudi Arabia.

Method 2: Registration. The registration process removes the need to conduct inspection testing on every occasion that a shipment is dispatched, and is therefore more appropriate for companies that deal with Saudi Arabia on a regular basis. To become registered, companies must sign a declaration of compliance with the Saudi essential requirements. This declaration must be supported by an associated technical file that provides evidence to justify compliance with the requirements of the relevant CVG. As with shipment-by-shipment compliance verification, the supporting test data should be produced by an SASO-approved laboratory. Nonapproved laboratories may be used, subject to the same criteria as specified for Method 1.

Individual shipments are still subject to inspection on the supplier's premises, to confirm compliance with the essential cultural requirements and to establish that the products shipped are the same as those that were originally tested. They also may be subject occasionally to preshipment testing intended to confirm compliance with the CVG requirements.

Registered companies that have signed a declaration of compliance but have not yet received a positive evaluation of their technical file will be subject to more-frequent testing of consignments.

Method 3: Type-Approval Licensing. The licensing of products usually eliminates the need for both shipment-by-shipment testing and shipment-by-shipment inspection. To be licensed, products must fully comply with the relevant SASO standard and not just the key clauses detailed in the CVG. In addition, the quality system of the factory from which the products originate must be subject to independent assessment. Testing should be repeated every two years, and products may be subject to occasional shipment-by-shipment inspection.

Enforcement

Contacting SASO

Details regarding the SASO country offices (which are the initial point of contact for most manufacturers), the regional licensing centers, and SASO-approved laboratories can be obtained from the ICCP Web site (http://www.iccp.com). The site also offers useful guidance notes and is a source of the necessary application forms and fee schedules.

Nigel Harvey is marketing and sales manager with ITS (Brentwood, Essex, UK). He has given presentations on various product certification and testing requirements. He served as chairman of the European EMC Competent Bodies' Technical Working Group from 1996 to 1998. He can be contacted via e-mail at nharvey@itsfts.co.uk.