Bethel Finance: Gov't approves switch to int'l product standards

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Bethel Finance news:
The government approved the recommendation today to expand the import of products under international standards, as opposed to local standards established by the Israel Standards Institute. The decision, brought before the government as part of the recommendations of the Committee for Social and Economic Change headed by Professor Manuel Trajtenberg, has aggrieved both the Institute and manufacturers. The latter claim that the move is aimed at weakening the Institute, and is liable to expose the economy to inferior imported goods that will put consumers at risk in the absence of suitable controls.

For their part, the importers argue that, because of the monopoly enjoyed by the Institute in setting and applying standards, they face bureaucratic difficulties in introducing imported products to Israel. The importers have claimed in the past that the Institute tended to act in the interests of local manufacturers to limit imports that could compete with local production.

Under the decision passed today, the process enabling a switch to international standards will be completed by the end of the year. New international standards will be adopted under an expedited procedure, to allow exposure to imported products. The basis of the decision is the Ministry of Finance’s aspiration to facilitate greater competition, ultimately leading to a substantial fall in price of products on store shelves.

The Israel Standards Institute said today that in recent years it had led moves to adopt international standards, and that in any case it planned to complete the process by the end of 2012. “We have been, and will continue to be, the public’s protector from deficient and dangerous products liable to cause harm to consumers,” the Institute said.

The proposal also stipulates that the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor will operate inspectors who will raise the level of enforcement in cases of imports of unsafe products. This however has failed to reassure manufacturers, who warn that the market will become exposed to such products.

”We don’t like this decision, because the discussion that led to it did not take place out of a desire to make improvements, but out of a desire to close the Israel Standards Institute. This is not a move designed to improve the level of service and of standards, but to injure the Institute, which is an important and serious organization in the country’s commercial and economic system,” Manufacturers Association director Amir Hayek told “Globes” today. “Exposing the Israeli market to imported products will turn the country into the world’s scrapheap.”

Last week, the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) began the process of declaring a labor dispute at the Israel Standards Institute, with Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini promising that he would act to torpedo the government’s move.