PD CEN/TR 15855:2009 Construction products. Assessment of release of dangerous substances. Barriers to trade
This Technical Report (TR) shall indicate the barriers to trade as identified by the product Technical Committees in relation with emission of regulated dangerous substances in indoor air, surface water, groundwater or soil. CEN is asked to describe if and how these barriers to trade can be resolved or prevented by the set of standards included in the work programme.
This TR will be used by the Commission to address the issue of barriers to trade with the Member States and to discuss with regulators their requirements to prevent harmful effects as stated in ER3 of the CPD as described in the main body of the mandate.”
Therefore, this report is intended to look first at existing technical barriers, but also to establish whether potential technical barriers exist and to provide examples of such barriers. However the market sometimes makes little or no distinction between a technical barrier to trade (or even a potential barrier to trade) and the existence of barriers to the use of products that are legally placed on the market having already met the technical standard requirements.
Manufacturers are disturbed that they can comply with the requirements of the CPD and any harmonised standards, but still encounter difficulties in having their products specified and used, or even where they have to complete additional hurdles beyond those demanded in the harmonised technical specification.
As the subject came up many times, this report contains numerous references to such “barriers to use”, but this subject will be dealt with separately, and in greater detail, in another report since it is not within the scope of CEN Standardisation to remove barriers to use. Similarly, there is no attempt in this report to examine the question of trade barriers resulting from any other market mechanism introduced at either EU level or national level, which results in or from fiscal penalties, quotas or international trade agreements since these are beyond the scope of technical harmonisation.