KATS Consults with Uzbekistan on Easing Discriminatory Regulations... Normalizing Samsung and LG Electronics Home Appliance Exports

Regulatory Relaxation on Energy Efficiency for Imported Home Appliances at the Request of the Korean Government

The government of Uzbekistan has postponed energy efficiency regulations on imported home appliances at the request of the Korean government.

The National Institute of Technology and Standards (NITS) under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 5th that it recently negotiated with the Uzbek government to ease energy efficiency regulations on imported home appliances.

Photo by Yonhap News

In December last year, Uzbekistan announced a plan to strengthen regulations by raising the energy efficiency rating standards for imported home appliances by two levels or more.

Since there was no prior notice or grace period, Korean companies such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics faced the risk of disruption in exporting their home appliances. In response, NITS formed a rapid response team for trade technical barriers (TBT).

On the 1st, NITS held bilateral negotiations with the Uzbek Ministry of Energy locally and requested the easing of regulatory discrimination between imported and domestic products and a postponement of enforcement. As a result, the Uzbek government decided to initiate the regulatory revision process.

They also agreed to resume customs clearance for Korean companies' export products until the regulation is revised. The annual export volume of home appliances from domestic companies such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics to Uzbekistan is about 30 billion KRW.

NITS plans to expand cooperation related to technical regulations focusing on countries like India and Mexico, where information gathering is difficult and the introduction of technical regulations has recently increased, similar to Uzbekistan.