INTRODUCTION
Mandatory standards in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) are applied equally to both imported and domestically
produced products for the protection of health, safety, national security, public morals, the environment and prevention
of deceptive practices. Procedures for assurance of conformity to the applicable Saudi standards are enforced by the
Ministry of Commerce & Industry (MoCI) for imported products and by the Ministry of Municipalities, Ministry of
Agriculture and the MoCI for domestic products.
In 1995, the MoCI introduced the Conformity Assessment Programme (CAP) which was a combined conformity
assessment, inspection and certification scheme based on which consignments of regulated products covered by this
programme were allowed entry into the Kingdom, and cleared more quickly through Customs upon arrival.
In 2004, the MoCI issued a Decree 6386, which introduced significant changes to the programme the most important
of which was increasing the scope of the regulated products to cover all consumer related products and mandating
that all such products would require a Certificate of Conformity (CoC) for entry into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Programme focuses primarily on assuring the safety of consumers. Requirements relating to the Islamic Religion
and National Security are also given priority. Compliance with the relevant Saudi standards, or approved equivalent
alternatives (e.g. international and, exceptionally, national standards) results in the issue of a Certificate of Conformity
prior to shipment.
KEY FEATURES
The primary objective of applying the KSA Conformity Assessment Programme is to:
Increase the overall compliance of imports to Saudi Standards.
Ensure safety of consumers. Requirements relating to the Islamic Religion and National Security are also
given priority.
Minimize the risk of unsafe and sub-standard goods entering Saudi Arabia through the execution of conformity
assessment activities in the country of export. This will help ensure that consumers are protected from unsafe
and sub-standard goods.
PROCEDURES OF PRODUCT COMPLIANCE
The essential elements of the Conformity Assessment Programme are:
Products that are subject to certification in accordance with the MoCI Decree 6386 must demonstrate
compliance with Saudi Arabian technical regulations i.e., Saudi or other approved international standards.
CAP Certificate of Conformity must accompany each shipment of products that are subject to certification.
Methods of achieving these requirements vary, according to the nature of the product. These options are described in
the following pages in detail.