PROGRESS REPORT No.2

APEC Road Transport Harmonization Project --- Phase 5, Stage 1
Tender : Road Transport Harmonization Project No.TPT 02/99

Submitted to :

Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat
438 Alexandra Road
#14-01/04, Alexandra Point
Singapore 119958

Project Leader :

Mr. Hideo Kamata
Chairman of Regulation and Certification Systems Committee

August 20, 1999
Japan Automobile Standards Internationalization Center
(JASIC)

CONTENTS

1. Introduction
2. Received Comments on Progress Report 1 and Countermeasures for them
3. Progress of each Task
1. Task 1
2. Task 2
3. Task 3
4. Task 4
5. Task Schedule

4. Comments and Requests for Steering Committee Members

Attachments

1. Principle of General Guidelines
2. Summary List on Regulation, Certification System and Compliance-check System and General Guidelines
3. Individual Guidelines for Thailand
4. Individual Guidelines for Australia
5. Task Schedule of RTHP Phase V Stage 1

1. Introduction

This report covers the state of progress of work in the period from when Progress Report 1 was submitted to the end of July 1999 based on a consultancy agreement of FY1999 concluded by JASIC with the APEC Secretariat. Along with this, it reports on comments on Progress Report 1 presented at APEC Transportation Working Group meeting held in Santiago, Chile in April and countermeasures for the same.

2. Comments on Progress Report 1 and their countermeasures

The major comments at the Transportation Working Group relating to Progress Report 1 were as follows:

(1) The "Summary List on Regulations, Certification Systems, and Compliance-Check Systems" for deriving the general guidelines should include the U.S. and Canada, which employ self-certification systems (U.S.).

[Countermeasure] A questionnaire was sent to the U.S. and information obtained from NHTSA has been entered into the summary list. Only information relating to NHTSA (self-certification system) was entered. Information concerning EPA (government certification system) was not included. ? See Attachment (2).

(2) There was the comment that an "Australian type certification system which accepts manufacturers' test reports" should be added to the classification of certification systems listed in the principle of general guidelines (Australia).

[Countermeasure] The system was added. ?See Attachment (1).

(3) The PL Law, which was described as a supplemental system to a self-certification system in the principle of general guidelines, has no relation to certification. Therefore, government audits should be added instead of the PL Law. (U.S.)

[Countermeasure] This was revised as indicated in the comment. ?See Attachment (1).

(4) Attention should also be paid to mopeds and vehicles in other categories than passenger cars (IMMA).

[Countermeasure] All vehicle categories will be covered.

5. It will be appreciated if the information on regulation/certification system in Luxembourg is to be disseminated (Singapore).

[Countermeasure] The information on regulation/ certification system in Luxembourg is included in the "summary list on Regulations, Certification Systems, and Compliance-Check Systems". ?See Attachment (2).

Later, comments were sent from China and Australia. The major comments were as follows. (Ones overlapping with the comments already presented at the Transportation Working Group meeting are eliminated.):

(1) The adoption of the unique technical regulations should be studied for Germany, Poland, and Luxembourg (China).

[Countermeasure] The questionnaire had a section for giving examples of adopted unique technical regulations. The results are shown below :

Poland ?mudguards, head-restraints

Luxembourg ?relaxed noise regulations for vehicles other than M1 (passenger cars) category

(2) Inspection of in-use vehicles has no relation to free trade. Therefore it should be eliminated from the work of phase V (China and Australia).

[Countermeasure] The information on vehicle inspection will remain in the summary list only for reference.

(3) Wouldn't it be better to study the framework to put internationally-harmonized regulations under obligation within APEC regions (Australia)?

[Countermeasure] We have no intention to take this up at Phase V Stage 1. It seems this would be the very theme to be taken up by the Transportation Working Group. It could also be possible to take this up as an issue to be discussed at multilateral workshops planned at Phase V Stage 2.

(4) The questionnaire should include not only the state of the current regulations and certification systems, but also future trends (Australia).

[Countermeasures] Questions on future trends were added to the questionnaire. The revised questionnaire was used when visiting the two countries in the first preliminary consultations in May.

(5) In phase V, vehicles in all categories should be covered (Australia).

[Countermeasures] Basically, vehicles in all categories will be covered. Attached Paper (2) of Attachment (1) shows applied technical regulations for passenger cars, heavy duty vehicles, and motorcycles respectively.

(6) There is no need to study the procedures to control automobiles produced in small quantities or individually imported vehicles (Australia).

[Countermeasure] Procedures relating to automobiles produced in small quantities or individually imported vehicles will not be considered.

3. State of Progress of Work

JASIC has already held eight working group meetings headed by the project leader and has engaged in the following work.

3.1. Task 1

Germany, Poland, Luxembourg, the UK, and Japan were selected as countries already actively participating in WP29. Their regulations, certification systems, and compliance-check systems were outlined on the summary list. (See Attachment (2) "Summary List on Regulations, Certification Systems, and Compliance-Check Systems and General Guidelines.")

June 1: Dispatch of questionnaire on U.S. regulations, certification systems, and compliance-check systems to NHTSA along with request to fill it out.

June 24: Acquisition of reply from NHTSA. The questionnaire was forwarded by NHTSA to EPA as well, but no reply was obtained from EPA. The information on U.S. was added to Attachment (2) based on the information obtained from NHTSA.

3.2. Task 2

At first, the principle of general guidelines was formulated. Then general guidelines were prepared on the basis of the data of Germany or other countries obtained at Task 1. Refer to Attachment (2).

3.3. Task 3

We conducted fieldwork research and engaged in preliminary consultations relating to the systems for implementation of regulations and certification systems in two teams, one for Thailand and the other for Australia. Our visiting schedules were as follows. For the results of the fieldwork research, see Attachment (3) "Individual Guidelines for Thailand", and Attachment (4) " Individual Guidelines for Australia"

Thailand

May 19 (Wednesday): TAIA (Thai Automotive Industry Association) and Office of Industrial Economics, Ministry of Industry

May 20 (Thursday): Pollution Control Department, Ministry of Science, Technology, and Industry / a seatbelt manufacturer

May 21 (Friday): TISI (Thai Industrial Standards Institute, Ministry of Industry) / TISI exhaust gas test laboratory

May 24 (Monday): Department of Land Transport, Ministry of Transport and Communications

Australia

May 21 (Friday): NRTC (National Road Transport Commission)

May 24 (Monday): FORS (Federal Office of Road Safety)

May 25 (Tuesday): Department of Industry, Science, and Resources / Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

May 26 (Wednesday): FAPM (Federation of Automotive Products Manufacturers) / FCAI (Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries)

May 27 (Thursday): Crash Lab (Organization of New South Wales)

May 28 (Friday): Roads and Traffic Authority (Organization of New South Wales)

3.4. Task 4

Individual guidelines have been proposed for Thailand and Australia. Refer to Attachment (3) "Individual Guidelines for Thailand" and Attachment (4) "Individual Guidelines for Australia." We will propose action plans for Thailand and Australia by around the end of August and hold consultations with the related parties of the two countries in September or October. We will make the necessary corrections based on the opinions of the related parties of the two countries.

3.5. Overall Work Schedule

See Attachment (5) "Task Schedule of RTHP Phase V Stage 1".

4. Requests to Steering Committee members

Please comment on any points you have noticed regarding the general guidelines (Attachment(2)) and individual guidelines (Attachment (3) and (4)) by the end of September.

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