| TOP |
| 5th Report of Market Access Ombudsman Council (March 17, 1998) |
1. Complainant: Korean Embassy in Japan
2. Ministry concerned: Ministry of Construction
3. Complaint:
In the operation of the inspection and verification system for overseas materials imported for the construction ordered by public agencies, the same inspections are applied, with no distinction made between the materials of companies that have acquired the internationally recognized ISO certification and the materials of companies that have not. At present, external bodies of the Ministry of Construction are conducting the work for authorizing quality inspections, but the inspecting agency differs with each construction project, necessitating considerable time and expense. Through these regulations, even if materials satisfy the Korean or international standards, in some cases they cannot be used for public construction within Japan.
In light of the purpose of the inspection and verification system, for all products for which ISO certification has been acquired, either effect equal to that of the quality inspections of overseas construction materials should be recognized or introduction of a mutual certification system pertaining to quality standards should be aimed for.
4. Corresponding Policy of the Ministries concerned:
(1) In public construction, specifications and the like normally stipulate use of materials of quality equal or superior to the JIS standards; however, for construction materials manufactured overseas, the inspection and verification work involves ensuring that the relevant materials satisfy JIS and that the quality control system of the factory or enterprise that manufactured those materials is conducive to reliable supply of them. Based on this work, smooth, effective utilization of construction materials manufactured overseas is attempted.
In addition, in 1996, the validity of the inspection and verification was extended from one year to three, and other efforts are being made to improve the system.
(2) ISO certification (ISO 9000 series) is a quality system to ensure that suppliers can continuously supply consumers with the products and/or services that satisfy their requirements and that stipulates actual status, etc. In this verification work, for materials manufactured at factories or enterprises that have received this certification, the parts of inspections that would be duplicated are omitted.
(3) JIS standards already exist, like those for cement, but for products not produced and supplied as JIS products, if a mill sheet (quality assurance document) is appended and submitted indicating that the quality of products not produced and supplied as JIS products is equal or superior to that of the JIS standards, we are planning to notify the related agencies that the materials can be used in the same way as domestic ones and to coordinate handling with domestically produced materials.
(4) Concerning JIS, in the December 1996 report on the review of the industrial standardization system, promotion of coordination with the international standards is expressed, and coordination with JIS and the international standards is currently being advanced.
(5) As the following items differ in actuality, we are in the process of verifying the complainant's opinion.
1) Although it was stated that "the same inspections are applied, with no distinction made between the materials of companies that have acquired the internationally recognized ISO certification and the materials of companies that have not," for products of enterprises that have obtained ISO9000 series certification, inspection of items pertaining to the product control system have been omitted from the past, and since September of 1996, the items for which inspections are omitted has increased.
2) Although it was stated that "...the inspecting agency differs with each construction project," concerning materials for civil engineering, Public Works Research Center and Japan Testing Center for Construction Materials conduct the inspections, and the inspecting agencies thus do not differ with each construction project. In addition, verification may be used for multiple construction projects within the (three-year) period for which verification is valid.
3) Although it was stated that "[Inspection requires] considerable time and expense," the inspection takes one month from the time the application documents have been received, as a rule.
4) As for the statement "for the ordered construction, the external bodies of the Ministry of Construction inevitably require performance inspections, quality inspections, and other separate quality confirmation procedures," the results of our investigation indicate that there are no external organizations (public corporations) to which this pertains. As the essentials state, with or without this quality inspection, verification and work, acceptance inspections and the like at construction sites will be conducted in accordance with the ordering party's specifications.