Overview
The Bureau of Philippine Standards (BPS), under the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), is the national standards body that develops, promulgates, implements, and promotes standardization activities in the Philippines. The standards system in the country is mostly government-driven although the government consults with industry/local stakeholders in formulating the Philippine National Standards (PNS) and adopting international standards. Parties that do not have a manufacturing presence in the country can participate in standards development work by being a member of the technical committees that review proposed standards.
The BPS prepares a Standards Development Work Program which specifies the standards under preparation and those recently adopted.
The BPS has established 90 Technical Committees for various products and services, of which 49 are active.
Technical committees are made up of academic experts, consumer groups, government agencies, trade, and industry professionals, testing institutions, and research institutions. Experts included must be nominated by their respective organizations subject to approval by the BPS.
Standards
The Philippines widely uses International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards. The BPS is a member of the ISO, which develops voluntary standards on quality, safety, and efficiency of products, services, and systems from technology to food safety, construction, agriculture, and healthcare. The BPS is also a member of the IEC and participates in standards development for electrical, electronic, and related technologies.
While majority of the PNS are based on ISO and IEC standards, the BPS also collaborates with other standards development organizations such as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) which is made possible through license agreements with these organizations.
Testing, Inspection and Certification
Although adoption of PNS standards are voluntary, the BPS implements mandatory product certification schemes for 111 products and systems, including household appliances, consumer electronics, lighting and wiring devices, steel products, plastic pipes, ceramic products, cement and other construction materials, chemical products, automotive-related products, and other consumer products.
The BPS implements two Mandatory Product Certification Schemes: 1) the Philippine Standard (PS) Quality and/or Safety Certification Mark Licensing Scheme and 2) the Import Commodity Clearance (ICC) Certification Scheme. Products covered by the mandatory certification, whether locally manufactured or imported, are not allowed to be distributed in the Philippine market without the necessary PS or ICC marks.
The PS License is granted to either local or foreign manufacturer whose factory and product/s have successfully complied with the requirements of the PNS ISO 9001 and the relevant product standard/s.
The ICC Certificate is issued to an importer whose imported products have shown conformance to relevant standards through inspection, verification, and product testing by the BPS and its recognized testing laboratories for electrical, electronic, chemical, mechanical, and consumer products. This is done to verify conformity to PNS requirements that support the PS and ICC product certification schemes.
Publication of Technical Regulations
The BPS circulates draft technical regulations to public and private stakeholders with a 60-day comment period. These technical regulations are posted on the BPS Standards and Conformance Portal. All approved Department Administrative Orders (DAOs) for implementing the PNS under mandatory certification are published in two newspapers of general circulation. The regulations take effect within 15 days after publication. BPS usually prescribes a transitory provision in the DAO for stakeholders to comply with the new regulation. These are the recently issued Department Administrative Orders - BPS S&C Portal (dti.gov.ph).
Comments on draft regulations may be emailed to bps@dti.gov.ph.
Further, the BPS releases a weekly WTO TBT Notifications Bulletin to simplify information dissemination on direct links to notifications made by WTO Members. U.S. companies can view the WTO–TBT Notifications Bulletin here: WTO-TBT Notifications Bulletin.
Contact:
Bureau of Philippine Standards – Department of Trade and Industry
BPS Email: bps@dti.gov.ph
U.S. Commercial Service – Philippines
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 US 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 USA 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.
For EU CCG: Include reference to article with a video on CE Mark: https://www.trade.gov/ce-marking