G-Mark Qatar: what the importer shows at the border

Two bodies, both under the same minister. QS, the Qatar General Organization for Standardization, was set up in 2002 and is affiliated to the Minister of Commerce and Industry. It publishes Qatari standards, which are optional, and Qatari technical regulations, which are mandatory, and it represents Qatar at GSO. BD-142004-01 leaves the market surveillance authority to each member state; in Qatar the Ministry of Commerce and Industry carries it on its consumer affairs side, with a Quality Licence and Market Control department, a Consumer Protection and Combating Commercial Fraud department, and product recalls published on the ministry's own site.

Article 10 of BD-142004-01 says what the Qatari importer answers for. The importer, a person established in a member state, must show that the conformity assessment was done, check that the mark is on the product, draw up its own Importer Declaration of Conformity in Arabic and English, keep both declarations for ten years, and hand the technical documentation over in Arabic within twenty working days when the authority asks. English is accepted only after the authority approves it.

The mistake we see most is a file that lives with the manufacturer in Europe while the importer in Doha holds a PDF of the certificate and nothing else. A request under Article 10 lands on the importer. Twenty working days is not enough to translate a technical file from scratch, so we build the Arabic set before the first shipment.

Five things. The Gulf Type Examination certificate from a GSO-notified body, for List 2 appliances and for toys, with the body's identification number, which also sits next to the mark on the product. The Gulf Conformity Tracking Symbol. The Declaration of Conformity in Arabic and English, signed by the manufacturer and, under Article 17(2), by the importer as well. Arabic safety information and instructions, plus the importer's name and address on the product, its packaging or an accompanying document. And the right supply: amendment TC-225310-01 of October 2022 replaced the Annex 1 table of BD-142004-01, and the Qatar row reads 240/415 V plus or minus 6 percent, 50 Hz, plug type G.

The plug is regulated in its own right. Entry 12 of List 2 (TC143307-01) is "plugs, socket outlets, adaptors, cord extension sets and chargers", so a detachable charger packed with a self-declared product is a List 2 item even when the product is not. GSO's conformity pages let anyone browse the products registered by Gulf notified bodies and authenticate a certificate; a Qatari inspector can do the same.

We check the body on GSO's register before we accept a report from it. A certificate from a body whose notification has lapsed is a document with a logo. Article 25 lets a market surveillance authority instruct a notified body to withdraw or review its certificates, and a withdrawn certificate does not come back at the port.

List 2 of BD-142004-01, issued as TC143307-01 on 6 August 2014, has thirteen entries, from domestic fans, refrigerators and washing machines through toasters, hair dryers, heaters, microwave ovens, cookers, water heaters and irons to plugs, adaptors, chargers and air conditioners. These follow Annex 4: an application to a single notified body, with a written declaration that no other body has been asked, the technical documentation, and representative specimens. Every toy for children under 14 goes through a notified body under BD-131704-01, in force since 1 January 2014, with warnings marked in Arabic.

Low-voltage equipment outside List 2, from 50 to 1,000 V AC or 75 to 1,500 V DC, is self-declared: the manufacturer registers the product and the mark with GSO and signs the declaration itself, as the GCC G-Mark page describes. Outside the Gulf regulations that carry it there is no G-Mark. Those products enter on Qatari technical regulations published by QS and on the Gulf general product safety regulation BD09100504. Energy efficiency is outside BD-142004-01 and may be regulated nationally. Halal is a separate clearance, recognised state by state; GSO lists halal products among planned regulations, and none of them carries the G-Mark today.

Two boundary mistakes reach us regularly. A toy shipped under the electrical regulation: a battery ride-on or a talking plush with a low-voltage test report is a toy under BD-131704-01, and the certificate has to cite the toy regulation. And a self-declaration on a List 2 appliance: an air conditioner with a CB report and a self-signed declaration is formal non-compliance under Article 30, and the ministry can restrict the product or have it withdrawn until the type examination exists.

Four to ten weeks where test reports to the GSO or IEC standards already exist, the same range as the GCC page. BD-142004-01 grants presumption of conformity to the IECEE CB scheme, so a CB report to the IEC edition is the starting point, and the notified body checks it against the GSO edition and the Qatar row of the plug and voltage table. List 2 appliances and toys add the type examination and the tracking symbol. The Qatari side, the importer declaration and the Arabic texts, runs in parallel.

Two things move the date. The technical documentation must be drawn up in Arabic, with English accepted after the authority approves it, and a translated instruction sheet needs a print run. And a change to the type, a new power board or a different plug, must be reported to the notified body that holds the file, which may issue an addition to the certificate before the changed product can carry it.

Plan the Arabic instruction sheet at the same time as the tests. A certificate that arrives in week six does nothing for a carton printed in week three with English-only warnings.