Product Compliance
in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia observes standards established by SASO, the domestic standars’ regulator as well those developed by the Gulf Cooperation Council which is a standard organization serving six Gulf countries. The SASO monitors development, elaboration and implementation of standards specifically in Saudi Arabia while the GSO is responsible for standards’ consistence across the Gulf countries.

The GCC consists of six countries in the Arabian Penisula: Saudi Arabia, which is the most influential member, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. The GCC’s objective is to create a common set of standards for the member countries. The SASO has the exclusive right in Saudi Arabia to set national standards and other requirements for products and commodities in such areas as commodity definition, safety measurers, environmental testing, testing methodology. All the standards set by the organization are subject to approval by the SASO’s Board of Directors.

Throughout 2016 Saudi Arabia kept on revising technical standards for a group of different products to make them consistent with the regulations of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). That was a shift from previous long time reliance on U.S.- domiciled standards development organizations (SDOs).

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia demands that all the shipments of goods exported to the country that come under Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO) Technical Regulation should be accompanied by a Shipment Certificate along with sufficient Product Certificate which confirm compliance with relevant standards and technical regulations.

To achieve that in January 2018 SASO developed a new electronic system which replaced the former KSA Conformity Assessment Programme. The new system enables electronic certification and conformity assessment of all goods imported by Saudi Arabia and became mandatory since July 2018. The Certificates of Conformity for products exported to Saudi Arabia can be obtained through an electronic service provider Saber (https://saber.sa) which confirms that products meet applicable standards and are in accordance with specifications required.

Saber is an electronic verification tool working which enables direct online communication of different authorities linking importers of goods to Saudi Arabia with SASO – certification bodies, customs and involved trade authorities. The implementation of this system was supposed to facilitate the custom procedures of shipments coming to Saudi Arabia, scale down the number of bogus (false) products, facilitate tracking of products and increase the number of products in the Saudi market that meet SASO standards.

Saber is an online portal for both regulated and unregulated products. The importer of regulated product has to go through a number of steps to submit it for importation:

• Registration of the product in the Saber system.
• Enter the product details.
• Select the product’s category.
• Contact a SASO-approved certification body assigned to the product for conformity assessment (see the details below)
• Wait for the approval certificate.

In case of receiving approval certificate the importer sends a shipment certificate to Saudi customs before the product can enter the market. The entire process is conducted online.

Importers of unregulated products can simply declare that products meet voluntary standards through a number of steps:

• Enter the product details into the system.
• Attach the technical documentation.
• Obtain a Requester Declaration (S-CoC)
• Receive a shipment certificate

Then the product is sent to customs and may enter the Saudi market.

Most conformity assessments prescribed by the SASO technical regulations are based on the three following approval types (as defined in ISO/IEC 17067):

• Type 1a: Product testing / inspection
• Type 3: Product testing / factory inspection / audit
• Type 5: Product testing / factory inspection / surveillance factory audit

Common features of these types comprise the following proceedings:

The manufacturer shall submit a request for type approval to a notified body selected him, such request shall include:

1. Name and address of the manufacturer;
2. A written declaration not to submit the same request to any other Notified Body.
3. Technical documentation facilitating the assessment of the conformity of the product to the requirements of Saudi technical regulations. Such documentation shall include adequate analysis and evaluation of risks.
4. Technical documentation shall identify the requirements that apply to the product. Including, as required by the assessment, the design of the product, manufacturing and operation (use) of the product.
5. Technical documentation shall include – at least – the following:

• A general description of the product.
• Design and manufacturing drawings, horizontal projections (diagrams), components, units, subdivisions, etc.
• Description and explanations, referred to therein, necessary to understand the drawings, diagrams, and the operation (use) of the product.
• List of the Saudi standards or any other relevant technical specifications adopted by SASO, whether fully or partially ap-plied, and a description of the adopted solutions to meet the essential requirements of the Saudi technical regulations in case of non-application of the aforementioned standards. In case of partial application of Saudi standards, the technical documentation shall clarify the applied clauses.
• Report results (graph calculations) of the design, operation control, conducted tests, etc.
• Test reports.
• Representative samples of the planned production. The notified body may request additional samples, if necessary.
• Evidences (proofs) supporting the appropriateness of the technical solutions applied in the design. Such evidence shall refer to all documents, particularly in case of non-application of the Saudi standards and/or the aforementioned appropriate technical specification.
• Supporting evidences – as applicable – shall include results of test conducted in the suitable laboratory in the manufacturer or any other laboratory under the responsibility of manufacturer

Labelling

SASO is also responsible for marketing guidelines for products in the Saudi market including labeling. The guidelines are implemented by the Ministry of Commerce and Investments through its inspection and test laboratories located in places where imported goods enter Saudi Arabia. However, there is no single label of confirmation because SASO advises different rules (e.g. labeling in Arabic) and provides specific requirements for marks identification and labels for different kinds of imported products with respect to the applicable Technical Regulations.

Among SASO Technical Regulations for different product categories are:

• BD-142004-01 and TC-143307-01 – Technical Regulation for Low-Voltage Electrical Equipment and Appliances
• M.A.-155-16-03-01 – Technical Regulation for Lubricating Oil
• M.A.-156-16-04-02 – Technical Regulation for Building Materials – Part II: Insulating and Cladding Materials for Buildings
• M.A.-161-17-07-03 – Technical Regulations for Building Materials – Part IV Bricks, Tiles, Ceramics, Sanitary Ware and Related Products
• M.A.-155-16-03-03 – Technical Regulation for Paints (Dyes) and Varnishes
• M.A.-155-06-03-04 – Technical Regulation for Electric Self-Balancing Boards (Scooter)
• M.A.-166-18-04-02 – Technical Regulations for Electrical Batteries
• M.A.-162-17-04-02 – Technical Regulations for Auto Spare Parts
• M.A.-165-18-04-04 – Technical Regulations for Personal Protective Clothing and Equipment
• M.A.-164-18-05-02 – Technical Regulation of Textile Products
• M.A.-155-16-03-02 – Technical Regulations for Detergents
• Technical Regulations for Adhesives and Related Products
• Technical Regulations for Jewelry Decoration and Accessories
• E.M. 171-19-06-02 – Technical Regulations for Building Materials Part 5: Pipes for Water, Electricity and Gas Networks
• Technical Regulations for Telecommunications Devices
• Technical Regulations for Packaging
• E.M. 171-19-06-04 – Technical Regulations for Food Safety in Kitchen Appliances
• Technical Regulations for Shoes and Leather
• Technical Regulations for Pressure Devices and Equipment and their Accessories
• M.A.-172-19-04-02 – Technical Regulations for Firefighting Equipment and Materials
• Technical Regulations for Doors and Windows
• Technical Regulations for Machinery Safety – Part 1: Portable and Oriented Machines

The SASO Quality Mark (SQM) confirms the compliance of the product with the relevant national standards set by the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO) in Saudi Arabia.
It also proves that the production process of the product was conducted under an effective quality management system to ensure compliance with applicable quality standards.

A comprehensive evaluation of both the product and the system ensuring relevant quality through the production process has to be conducted through inspections, auditing and testing in order to grant the SQM license.

The certificate expires after three years. In the meantime the audits are conducted every 6 -12 month depending on the kind of the product.

The SQM can be granted to both voluntary and mandatory marks. If producers intends to build up consumer confidence in their products that are not subject to SASO’s regulations they can chose SQM as a voluntary mark.

The following products can be tested for the SQM Mark:

• Building materials – part I: Reinforcing Steel (rebar) for buildings
• Building materials – part III: Cement and concrete
• Building materials – part IV: Bricks, tiles, ceramics, and sanitary ware
• Gas appliances and their accessories

The SQM also simplifies the products’ customs procedures and makes them faster.

ICT equipment imported and sold in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia must be approved by the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC).

The CITC Equipment approval is a procedure that determines to what extent the telecommunications and IT equipment conforms to the technical specifications issued by the Commission. It aims at enabling both manufacturers and importers to ensure the conformity of their equipment to the technical specifications before manufacturing or importing them to the kingdom. Any party wishing to submit application for Equipment Approval shall adhere to the following procedures and conditions:

1. Register in the ICT Equipment Licensing System (the system) available through the CITC website
2. Submit Equipment Approval application to the CITC through the system.
3. Attach the required documents with the application (see section “documents required”)

Documents to be submitted are e.g.:

a) Detailed technical information from the manufacturer for the equipment that needs to be approved, including data sheet, equipment description, its functioning mechanism and accesso-ries, its intended applications, data related to interface characteristics and interoperability with the public networks , as well as photos for the equipment.

b) Declaration of conformity (DoC) from the manufacturer that the equipment conforms to the CITC technical specifications. The applicant must retain the original copy of the DoC and submit it to the CITC upon request.

c) Test reports from labs accredited by ILAC outlining the details of the tests conducted on the equipment, and their results. The re-ports shall include the names of the labs that conducted the tests, their addresses, and the date of the tests

d) After the applicant completes the application requirements, the Commission will study the application and upon approval, a Certificate of Conformity will be issued for the equipment for a specific time duration to be mentioned thereof in the certificate. In addition, the certificate may include any additional requirements that must be fulfilled before the importation or usage of the equipment

The procedure can be carried out by the importer.  The importer must be located in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Arabian standards for radio equipment are based mostly on the European EN standards.