Overview
The Croatian government has harmonized its technical standards legislation with EU Directives. To create an internal market where goods legally manufactured in one member state can be sold in the market of another member without any additional testing and certification, the EU is in a continuous process of harmonizing technical regulations, standards, and conformity assessment procedures among the member states. Since the EU consists of independent states, the EU adopts Directives and publishes references to harmonized standards that each member state is required to transpose into its own legislation and national standards system. More detailed information on the EU standards and certification is available from the U.S. Commercial Service at the U.S. Mission to the EU in Brussels:
Although the Croatian representative or importer is held directly responsible for product safety and for its conformity with Croatian technical regulations, the ultimate responsibility lies with the manufacturer.
Standards
The Croatian Standards Institute (HZN) is the public institution responsible for preparation, adoption, editing, and publication of Croatian standards. Any legal entity or natural person with a seat or residence in Croatia may be a member of the HZN and participate in its work. The members include interested Croatian manufacturers, testing, and measuring laboratories and certification bodies, educational and scientific institutions, chambers of commerce, industry associations, consumer associations, and government institutions. Only 0.2% of Croatian standards are of purely Croatian origin; the rest of them are adopted European and/or international standards. HZN maintains an on-line catalog of Croatian and other standards that can be mailed to interested users for a fee. As per EU directives, the Croatian standards are voluntary.
The Croatian Standards Institute (HZN)
Mr. Igor Božičević, Director General
Ulica grada Vukovara 78
10000 Zagreb
Tel: +385 1 610 60 95
E-mail: ured.ravnatelja@hzn.hr
Testing, inspection, and certification
The basic elements of the conformity assessment procedure in Croatia are defined by the Law on Technical Requirements for Products and Conformity Assessment published in Official Gazette No. 80/2013 and No14/2014. The Croatian Accreditation Agency is the public institution that confirms to Croatian private sector laboratories, companies, and physical persons that they meet certain standards required to participate in the conformity assessment process, i.e. issues them a formal accreditation.
Croatian Accreditation Agency (HAA)
Ms. Mirela Zečević, Director
Ulica grada Vukovara 78
10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Phone: +385 1 610 6322
Email: akreditacija@akreditacija.hr
As a part of creating the internal market, the EU has developed harmonized standards to be used for accreditation of third parties in the conformity assessment process in order to enable creation of an EU-wide network of equally technically capable laboratories and conformity assessment bodies whose certificates are valid throughout the EU. Each member state has designated conformity assessment bodies on its own territory that meet these standards and has notified them to the EU Commission that keeps the list of such Notified Bodies.
Publication of technical regulations
Technical regulations are published in the Croatian Official Gazette, along with all other laws and regulations. Some technical laws and regulations have been translated into English, primarily for the needs of the EU accession process. The U.S. Commercial Service at U.S. Embassy Zagreb can assist U.S. exporters to find out about the legislation relevant to their type of product and can also arrange for translation services, if necessary.
Use ePing to review proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.
The ePing SPS&TBT platform (https://epingalert.org/), or “ePing”, provides access to notifications made by World Trade Organization (WTO) Members under the Agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), distributed by the WTO from January 16, 1995 to present. ePing is available to all stakeholders free of charge and does not require registration unless the user wishes to receive customized e-mail alerts. Use it to browse notifications on past as well as new draft and updated product regulations, food safety and animal and plant health standards and regulations, find information on trade concerns discussed in the WTO SPS and TBT Committees, locate information on SPS/TBT Enquiry Points and notification authorities, and to follow and review current and past notifications concerning regulatory actions on products, packaging, labeling, food safety and animal and plant health measures in markets of interest.
Notify U.S., operated and maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since 2003 to distribute and provide access to notifications (and associated draft texts) made under the WTO TBT Agreement for U.S. stakeholders, has reached its end of life. Per obligation under the TBT Agreement, each WTO Member operates a national TBT (and an SPS) Enquiry Point. National TBT Enquiry Points are authorized to accept comments and official communications from other national TBT Enquiry Points, which are NOT part of the WTO or the WTO Secretariat. All comment submissions from U.S. stakeholders, including businesses, trade associations, U.S domiciled standards development organizations and conformity assessment bodies, consumers, or U.S. government agencies on notifications to the WTO TBT Committee should be sent directly to the U.S. WTO TBT Inquiry Point. Refer to the comment guidance at https://tsapps.nist.gov/notifyus/data/guidance/guidance.cfm for further information. This guidance is provided to assist U.S. stakeholders in the preparation and submission of comments in response to notifications of proposed foreign technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.
Contact Information
U.S. Embassy - U.S. Commercial Service
Damjan Bencic, Head of the Commercial Section
Zagreb, Croatia
Tel: +385 (0)1 661 2186
Email: Damjan.Bencic@trade.gov
Website: www.trade.gov/croatia