New standards
The news that the deadline for British manufacturers to stop using the CE quality mark has been extended by a year is to be welcomed. The reasons are numerous but only some of them are important.
The idea that covid has delayed the required testing of all products so they can have a useless new British quality mark is convenient but wrong. The testing facilities aren’t there and never have been, that is a major problem.
Also, many foreign suppliers who have limited interest in going through the rigmarole of testing in the UK for limited sales, so banning their products if they don’t get an identical test would be economically suicidal. While British industry is furious that the UK is rolling out an identical and parallel testing and quality assurance scheme that duplicates red tape and gains them nothing. They will all need the CE mark as well.
In fact they are pretty furious that they were not listened to and GB made no attempt to stay in the EU scheme. Nor did the British government do anything in the last 5 years to prepare for the change.
The logical, practical and sensible thing to do would be to abandon the idea that the UK can be a regulatory superpower, it can’t and stay in the EU scheme.
But that won’t happen, British industry now has another year to spend money preparing for something that will make life more difficult.
Another triumph
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.