During the imported goods workshop
Revealing 15 international agreements that protect the Saudi importer from any liability

More than 122 million non-conforming goods were seized last year

More than 122 million non-conforming goods were seized last year

Amlak - Follow-ups
The Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO), headed by Dr. Saad bin Othman Al-Qasabi, Governor of SASO, held several workshops in cooperation with the Riyadh, Eastern and Western Chambers on the new procedures to facilitate the clearance of imported goods, with the participation of a group of businessmen and representatives of companies and institutions working in the field of import and export, in addition to the participation of Saudi Customs.

Zamil's speech
Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Zamil, President of the Riyadh Chamber, pointed out during the workshop that inferior and bad goods come to the Kingdom indirectly from Iran and Israel. He stressed that our Saudi market was filled with counterfeit and counterfeit goods, which required that three government agencies, namely customs, trade and the Standards Authority, unite to establish controls to protect the consumer.
On the question of a number of businessmen about who bears the damages resulting from the destruction of some goods due to the delay of some “containers” inside the port, especially in the summer season, Al-Shanifi explained that the importer who did not commit to loading his consignment in a “container” that protects the goods that may be exposed to damage, pointing out that the customs years ago coordinated with the competent authorities about “medicines” to be transported only in refrigerated containers and applied this system strictly.

Zamil stressed the Chamber's interest in familiarizing businessmen with all regulations and procedures that affect the performance of the business sector, calling on businessmen to communicate with the various committees of the Chamber, including the Commercial Committee, to clarify these regulations, and said that the Chamber works in cooperation with government and private entities to publicize these regulations, indicating that this workshop represents one of these models.

Speech of the Standards Authority
Dr. Saad bin Othman Al-Qasabi, Governor of the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization, stressed during the workshop, which was moderated by Mr. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Ajlan, Chairman of the Commercial Committee and member of the Board of Directors of the Chamber. The conclusion of the agreements of the mutual recognition program for quality marks and certificates of conformity concluded by the Kingdom with 15 countries protects the Saudi importer from any liability if the violation of the certificate of conformity is proven on the imported commodity and that the company issuing the certificate bears responsibility.
The Governor of the Authority said that the focus of the Authority's work and its priorities are focused on everything that affects human life, and called on everyone to cooperate in order to report any violations related to the goods traded in the markets, and pointed out that the control work does not prevent 100% of the leakage of adulterated goods, as many parties resort to attempts to circumvent and manipulate to pass the adulterated goods
The Governor of the Authority refused to give any justification for the promotion of counterfeit and counterfeit goods in the Kingdom, despite the existence of the Standards and Metrology Authority, and added: ”There is no justification for the promotion of counterfeit and counterfeit goods, and I refuse to accuse the Ministry of Commerce in this section and the matter is related to concerted efforts and we have been reviewing mechanisms for 7 months and I bet that the program will achieve what is desired.”

He stressed ”the formation of several technical committees and technical working groups from all Gulf countries to study the mechanisms of applying building codes with the practical reality, specifying the end of this year as the last deadline for the technical results of the Gulf Building Code to be clearer, pointing to the exit of the second Gulf Building Code Forum held in Kuwait, recently, with several important recommendations, noting that the Gulf code was launched from the Saudi code so that it was the basis for adopting the Saudi code for the Gulf code.

Customs speech
For his part, Abdul Mohsen Al-Shanifi, Director of the Restrictions Department at the Customs Authority, assured the large crowd of importers of businessmen and women that the Authority applies the specifications compulsorily on all imported goods without exception through the submission of the importing entity of the certificate of conformity or the referral of samples of consignments to quality laboratories for conformity with Saudi or international standards or specifications of the country of production in the absence of a local or international standard.


At the beginning of the workshop, Al-Shneifi presented a presentation on the programs of the Customs Authority aimed at achieving the difficult equation of expediting the clearance of imported goods while ensuring their compliance with quality, security, health and economic protection requirements. He said that Customs has used highly advanced intelligent means to monitor and examine imported goods, while foiling smuggling operations of substances harmful to the health of consumers such as drugs, adulterated pharmaceutical and food products, or materials used in the production of explosives harmful to the security of the homeland and the citizen.
He added that Customs also succeeded in preventing the smuggling of subsidized petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel, which were subjected to smuggling operations to some neighboring countries, which harms the gains of the citizen, and was able to save 10,000 barrels per day that were smuggled out of the Kingdom, and explained that Customs was able to achieve excellent rates in efforts to control and prevent these actions.
Authorization procedures
For his part, the Director of the Recognition Department at the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO), Abdulaziz Al-Hanaihen, spoke about the role of the program in protecting the consumer and the local market, where he stressed that the current market situation reflects that it contains many products and goods that do not conform to the relevant specifications in the markets, and these products may cause harm to the consumer.
On the new procedures of the program of conformity of goods imported into the Kingdom, Al-Hanaihen said that this will limit the entry of non-conforming products into the Kingdom and will lead to the exchange of information and experiences with the signatories in the fields of standards and technical regulations, procedures of conformity systems, pointing out that conformity before shipment reduces the number of rejected consignments due to non-conformity; which facilitates and accelerates the clearance procedures at ports, and said that the work movement for 2013 showed that the total seizures of non-conformities reached more than 122 million rejected seizures.