The Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued recommendations for certification bodies and inspectors.
Due to the limited opportunities for experts to visit production sites to carry out mandatory certification procedures for production analysis and sampling of products (samples), the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation together with the Federal Accreditation Committee recommend certification bodies and applicants for mandatory certification work as follows:
- in respect of valid certificates of conformity issued for serial production, if the next scheduled inspection is due or occurs during the period associated with the spread of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) – to postpone the inspection for up to 6 months;
- in relation to valid certificates of conformity for serial production whose validity expires during the period associated with the spread of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the certification body that conducted a periodic assessment (inspection) of this certified product may be issued a new serial certificate taking into account the positive results of the latest periodic assessment of such certified products. Inspection control on such newly issued certificates should be carried out within a period not exceeding 3 months from the moment of exclusion of the country in which the products are manufactured from the list of countries with an unfavourable epidemiological situation;
- for products that are first put into circulation, as well as products for which the certificate has expired, depending on the certification subject, apply certification schemes for a batch of products or for single products. In this case, the certification body may carry out sampling at the temporary storage warehouse, customs warehouse, in the vehicle’s capacity or through samples and samples imported into the Russian Federation in compliance with customs procedures;
- certification bodies temporarily suspend the provision of services to applicants, providing for the analysis of the state of production and sampling (sampling) in countries from the list of countries with an unfavourable epidemiological situation.