Six SAARC Regional Standards (SARS) finalizes by Sectoral ...sarso.portal.gov.bd/sites/default/files/files/sarso... · recommended three draft SAARC Regional Standards (SARS) i.e.

April – June 2015

SARSO News 1 | P a g e

Newsletter of the South Asian Regional Standards Organization

Six SAARC Regional Standards (SARS) finalizes by Sectoral

Technical Committees of SARSO on different Food and

Textile Products

The Sectoral Technical Committee (STC) on Food and Agricultural Products with the consensus

recommended three draft SAARC Regional Standards (SARS) i.e. Refined Sugar- specification,

Biscuits- specification and Code of hygienic practice for dairy sector for approval in its 5th

meeting held on 27-28 May, 2015 at Colombo, Sri Lanka. Meanwhile the STC on Jute, Textiles

and Leather in its fourth meeting held on 23-24 June, 2015 at India recommended three draft

SARS on identified product i.e. Hessian, Cotton Drill - specification, and Cotton Twill -

specification for approval. These draft SARS will be submitted in the upcoming third meeting of

Technical Management Board (TMB) of SARSO for final recommendation and then in the

upcoming 4th

meeting of Governing Board of SARSO for approval and publication.

Second Sectoral Technical Committee

(STC) Meeting on Chemical and Chemical

Products held in Colombo, Sri Lanka

The second meeting of STC on Chemical

and Chemical Products of SARSO was held

during 26-27 May, 2015 at Colombo, Sri

Lanka under the chair of Mrs. W.N.N.

Satharasinghe, Dy. Director General, Sri

Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI), Sri

Lanka. The meeting discussed on the

comparative charts and drafts SAARC

Regional Standards on Toilet Soap for

Babies, Soft Soap and Hair Shampoo and

agreed to circulate among Member States for

their comments. The meeting also discussed

the comparative chart on the products i.e

Toilet Soap, Liquid Toilet Soap, Hair

Shampoo for Babies, Laundry Soap,

Household Laundry Detergent Powder and

Tooth paste and recommended to circulate

among Member States for their comments.

During the meeting, the delegations from

India presented „Preliminary comparison of

Cosmetic Standards – Indian Standards (IS

4707 Part 1 and Part 2) and EEC Directives‟.

Meanwhile the delegations from Sri Lanka

presented „Preliminary comparison of

Cosmetic Standards – Sri Lanka Standard

(SLS 457 Part 2) with Indian Standard IS

4707 Part 2. It was agreed that Sri Lanka will

prepare the comparative chart of Sri Lanka

Standards (SLS 457 Part 1 and Part 2) vis-à-

vis EEC Directives. The third meeting of

STC on Chemical and Chemical Products

will be hosted by Pakistan.

Editorial Committee:

Dr. Syed Humayun Kabir

Director General

Dibyendu Chakrabarti

Director

Tashi Wangchuk

Khawja Gulam Mohiuddin

Deputy Director

April – June 2015

SARSO News 2 | P a g e

Fifth Meeting of Sectoral Technical Committee (STC) on Food &

Agricultural Products held in Colombo, Sri Lanka

The fifth meeting of STC on Food and

Agricultural Products of SARSO was held

during 28- 29 May, 2015 at Colombo, Sri

Lanka under the chair of Mrs. W.N.N.

Satharasinghe, Deputy Director-General, Sri

Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI),

Government of Sri Lanka.

The STC, after finalization of draft SAARC

Regional Standards on Biscuits, Refined

Sugar and code of Code of hygienic practice

for dairy sector, also discussed draft SARS

on earlier identified product such as „Black

Tea‟, „Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil

(Vanaspati)‟, „Skimmed Milk Powder‟,

„Food Hygiene – General Principles – Code

of Practice‟ and recommended to circulate

among Member States for their comments

for moving to final draft SAARC Regional

Standards.The STC also discussed on the

product “Instant Noodles” and agreed to

develop SAARC Regional Standard. In this

context it was agreed that Sri Lanka will

prepare draft SAARC Standard on “Instant

Noodles” and will circulate to all Member

States for their comments. The meeting after

discussion also agreed to formulate SAARC

Standards on Wheat and Rice and requested

Member States to send their National

Standards to SARSO Secretariat.

The meeting also appreciated India for

preparing the list of major food and

agricultural products, along with their trade

value, being exported from India to other

SAARC Member States. The meeting

requested all other Member States to also

circulate the list of their top ten products

being exported by them within the SAARC

region. This information will be helpful in

identifying new products for harmonization

of Standards among Member States.

The Meeting agreed that for the purpose of

formulation and development of Draft

SAARC Standards on any product, first

CODEX/WHO/FAO/ISO/IEC Standards

may be considered as applicable and then

compared with respective National

Standards, if available for the purpose of

reference and comparison.

Earlier, Mr. T.G. Gamini Dharmawardana,

Deputy Director-General, Sri Lanka

Standards Institution (SLSI) inaugurated the

5th meeting of STC on Food and

Agricultural Products. Ms. L. Savithri,

Director, Economic, Trade and Finance

Division, SAARC Secretariat, as per

SAARC procedure on behalf of Secretary

General of SAARC opened the meeting.

Dr. Syed Humayun Kabir, Director-General,

SARSO, on the inaugural session,

emphasized the importance of increasing the

frequency of meetings of Sectoral Technical

Committees for harmonisation of standards

of all identified products and to identify

more products for this purpose which are

being traded or have the potential of being

traded. He also briefed the meeting about the

current status of SARSO Secretariat

established in Dhaka. The 5th

meeting was

attended by the experts of Bhutan, India,

Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the SARSO

Secretariat and the SAARC Secretariat.

It was decided that the 6th

meeting of STC on

Food and Agricultural Products will be held

in September, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

April – June 2015

SARSO News 3 | P a g e

SARSO Organized an Interactive Session on SARSO – A Body for

Regional Harmonization of Standards at Dhaka, Bangladesh.

South Asian Regional Standards

Organization (SARSO) organized an

Interactive Session on South Asian Regional

Standards Organization (SARSO) - A Body

for Regional Harmonization of Standards on

Wednesday, 17 June 2015 at SARSO

Secretariat, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Mr. Md.

Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan ndc, Secretary,

Ministry of Industries, Government of

Bangladesh was the Chief Guest and

Mr. Iqramul Haque, Director General

Bangladesh Standards and Testing

Institutions (BSTI) was Special Guest on this

occasion. Dr. Syed Humayun Kabir,

Director-General, SARSO chaired the

session. Representatives of FBCCI, DCCI,

BUILD, BSTI, BAB, SAC and other distinct

participants were also present.

Dr. Syed Humayun Kabir, Director-General,

SARSO, in his welcome remarks,

highlighted the importance of SARSO and

harmonization of Standards among SAARC

Member States for regional trade.

Mr. Iqramul Haque, Director General BSTI,

in his remarks highlighted the importance of

SARSO and role of National Standards

Bodies of Member States in harmonization

of Standards. Mr. Dibyendu Chakrabarti,

Director SARSO gave a brief presentation on

SARSO and opened the session for further

discussion. Some of the recommendations

submitted by the participants were:

- To develop standards to control sub-

standard products at entry border;

- To establish a network for information

exchange in order to minimize trade

barriers within SAARC Member States;

- SARSO to harmonize those standards

which have impact on regional trade.

The Chief Guest, Mr. Md. Mosharraf

Hossain Bhuiyan, ndc, highlighted the

importance of National Quality Institutions

in enhancing trade and emphasized for early

implementation of Multilateral Agreement

on Standardization among SAARC Member

States. He further informed that, Standards

should be harmonized keeping in view the

impact of quality of goods at import level.

He also appreciated SARSO in organizing

such event and stressed that such kind of

activity should be held periodically to

sensitize the standardization activities of

SARSO.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

The cooperation agreements between

SARSO-IEC and SARSO-ISO have been

received. The agreements have been sent to

the Member States for concurrence which

will then be signed by SARSO. SARSO-

PTB collaboration Roadmap meeting for

strengthening the activities of SARSO will

be held in 25-26 August 2015 at Dhaka,

Bangladesh. The meeting will be organized

by SARSO Secretariat with the financial and

technical assistance from PTB-Germany.

April – June 2015

SARSO News 4 | P a g e

Fourth Meeting of Sectoral Technical Committee (STC) on Jute,

Textiles and Leather held in Noida, India

The fourth meeting of the STC on Jute,

Textiles and Leather was hosted by Bureau

of Indian Standards at their National Institute

of Training for Standardization (NITS),

Noida, India during 23-24 June 2015. Mr.

Mahaveer Singhvi, Director (SB and BC),

Ministry of External Affairs, Government of

India attended the inauguration session. Mr.

D. K Nayyar, Scientist G and Deputy

Director General, BIS and leader of

delegation of India was elected the

Chairperson. For the first time, SARSO

representative participated in the meeting for

documenting the proceedings of the session.

The meeting held deliberations on the Draft

SAARC Regional Standards (SARS) on

“Hessian”, “Textiles – Cotton Drill –

Specification” and “Textiles – Cotton Twill

– Specification” and finalized the same for

submission to the Third Meeting of

Technical Management Board (TMB). The

meeting deliberated on the following draft

SARS and requested Member States for their

comments:

1. Draft SARS on “Jute Twine”

prepared by India and finalized the

same and the Member States were

requested to convey their comments.

2. Draft SARS for „Jute Bags for

Packing 50 kg Food grains and Jute

Bags for packing 50 kg Sugar‟

prepared by Bangladesh.

3. Draft SARS on „Jute Yarn‟ prepared

by India.

4. Draft SARS on „Jute Carpets

Backing Fabric‟.

5. Draft SARS on „Towels and

Toweling Fabric‟ prepared by Sri

Lanka.

The delegation from India also made a

presentation on their proposal for

harmonization of Standards on leather and

leather products. After deliberations, the

meeting decided to initially harmonize

standards on the following three subject

items:

1. Leather - Glazed kid for shoe uppers–

HS Code: 64061020;

2. Specification for Full-chrome upper

leather– HS Code: 64061020; and

3. Vegetable tanned sole leather –

Specification–HS Code: 64069920.

The fifth meeting of STC on Jute, Textiles

and Leather was decided to be held in Nepal

in the First quarter of 2016 subject to

confirmation by Nepal. Mr. Subarna Prasad

Upadhyaya, Director, Nepal Bureau of

Standards and Metrology proposed the vote

of thanks.

April – June 2015

SARSO News 5 | P a g e

STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT Activities of Sectoral Technical Committees (STC) for Harmonization of

SAARC Regional Standards

SARSO STC

Identified Products

Host Country

Food and Agricultural Products

The following standards have been

finalized for recommendation of

TMB and approval by GB.

1. Refined Sugar- Specification

2. Biscuits - Specification

3. Code of hygienic practice for

dairy Sector

1. Instant Noodles

2. Black tea

3. Hydrogenated Vegetable oil (Vanaspati)

4. Skimmed Milk Powder

5. Food Hygiene – General Principles

Code of Practice

6. Wheat

7. Rice

1st meeting: Nepal, 2011

2nd

meeting: Dhaka, 2011

3rd

meeting: Pakistan, 2012

4th

meeting: India, 2014

5th

meeting: Sri Lanka, 2015

6th

Meeting is to be hosted by

Bangladesh in 2015

Jute, Textile and Leather

The following standards have been

finalized for recommendation of

TMB and approval by GB.

1. Hessian

2. Cotton Drill - Specification

3. Cotton Twill – Specification

1. Jute twine

2. Jute Bags for Packing 50 kg Food grains and

Jute Bags for packing 50 kg Sugar‟

3. Jute Yarn

4. Jute Carpet backing Fabric

5. Towels and Toweling Fabric

6. Leather - Glazed kid for shoe uppers

7. Specification for Full-chrome upper leather

8. Vegetable tanned sole leather specification

1st meeting: Nepal, 2012

2nd

meeting: Dhaka, 2012

3rd

meeting: Sri Lanka, 2013

4th

meeting: India, 2015

5th

Meeting is to be hosted by

Nepal in 2016

Building Materials 1. Steel Tube for Structural purposes

2. Ordinary Portland Cement

3. Steel Bars for Concrete Reinforcement

4. Structural Steel

5. High strength deformed steel bars and wires for

concrete reinforcement

6. Steel wires used in pre-stressed concrete

7. Method of testing of steel and steel tubes

8. Ceramic Tiles

1st meeting: Nepal, 2011

2nd

meeting: Nepal, 2012

3rd

meeting: Nepal, 2013

4th

meeting is to be hosted by

Nepal in 2015

Electrical, Electronics, Telecom

& IT

1.Electric cable (PVC insulated/sheathed)

2. Double capped fluorescent Lamp (Safety

Requirements and Performance Requirements)

3. New Products Identified: Switches, Sockets,

MCBs, Solar photovoltaic systems, transformers

1st meeting India, 2014

2nd

meeting is to be hosted by

Afghanistan in 2015

Chemical and Chemical

Products

1. Toilet soap

2. Liquid Toilet Soap

3. Baby Toilet Soap

4. Soft Soap

5. Shampoo (Hair Shampoo)

6. Hair Shampoo for Babies

7. Cosmetic standards – (Positive and

Negative Lists of Ingredients)

8. Laundry Soap

6. Detergent Powder

7. Tooth Paste

1st meeting: India, 2014

2nd

meeting: Sri Lanka, 2015

3rd

meeting is to be hosted by

Pakistan in 2016

April – June 2015

SARSO News 6 | P a g e

South Asian Regional Standards Organization (SARSO) Secretariat

116/A, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh

Tel: +88 02 8878130

Fax: +88 02 8878131

Website: www.sarso.org.bd

E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]