Ordinance 118 – RGCP, The Main Ordinance In Brazil: What Is It About?

SAFEGUARDS | Electrical & Electronics NO. 070/17

Issued on March 6, 2015 and complemented by Ordinance 252, issued on May 3, 2016, the RGCP addresses the general requirements for certification of products in Brazil.

This document, issued by CGCRE - General Coordination for Accreditation of INMETRO, also widely known by the acronym RGCP, addresses the general requirements for product certification in Brazil indeed the acronym stands General Requirements for Product Certification. Issued on March 6, 2015 Ordinance 118 is currently complemented by Ordinance 252, issued on May 3, 2016.

The first version of Ordinance 118 was published in 2011 and considered the need to confer greater standardization and conciseness in the establishment of Conformity Assessment Programs. Its prescriptions must be complemented by the Ordinance specific to each product subject to certification. In other words, in order to understand and meet the certification requirements of a product in Brazil, the content of RGCP (Ordinance 118) should be taken into account, complemented by the Ordinance of the product to be certified. It should be borne in mind that this process of standardization has been gradually harmonized with all existing ordinances.

For example, for fans, since 2012 certification should be made in accordance with the RGCP plus the product specific Ordinance. For electromedical products, harmonization will only take place when the new Ordinance 54 becomes effective.

To achieve standardization, the RGCP and the specific harmonized ordinances usually have the same itemization. In this way, differences between these documents are easily identified. It is also worth emphasizing that in the case of differences, requirements defined in the product specific Ordinance will always prevail over the RGCP.

This document was a very positive development to facilitate industry understanding of certification requirements, and to consolidate the practices used in the evaluation of conformity in Brazil so that they are harmonized yet clear and specific to different products.

For enquiries, please contact:

Andréa de Souza
Consumer Goods and Retail
Electrical & Electronics
Sales Executive
T: + 55 11 95654 2080

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