The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New Zealand (TECO)
and the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office (NZCIO) (“ the
Participants ” ) have approved an Arrangement on Regulatory
Cooperation on Standards, Technical Regulations and Conformity
Assessment (“ the Arrangement ” ). The purpose of this
Arrangement is to achieve more effective, systematic and
transparent regulatory cooperation between the Participants in
order to balance the costs associated with regulations to
consumers and manufacturers with the appropriate protection for
health, safety, consumers and the environment.

Paragraph 1 Scope
1.1 Regulatory cooperation under this Arrangement will be
centred on issues involving standardisation, technical
regulations and conformity assessment procedures relating to
traded goods in sectors decided by the Participants in
accordance with Paragraph 3.

Paragraph 2 Implementing Agencies
2.1 For the purposes of the Arrangement the implementing
agencies will be:
(a) The Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection,
Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taipei; and
(b) Ministry of Economic Development, Wellington.

Paragraph 3 Regulatory Cooperation Work Programmes
3.1 The Participants will, within a period of 12 months from the
date of signature of this Arrangement, identify and jointly
decide sectors and priority issues for which Regulatory
Cooperation Work Programmes will be established under this
Arrangement. The Work Programmes, including their
objectives, will be elaborated in Annexes to this
Arrangement.
3.2 In identifying and deciding sectors and priority issues, the
Participants will focus on areas of common interest and
mutual benefit.
3.3 Work Programmes will aim to:
(i) Further implement principles of Good Regulatory Practice (
“ GRP ” );
(ii) Improve the quality, transparency and effectiveness of
technical regulations;
(iii) Develop and implement initiatives around risk
management; and
(iv) Achieve better regulatory compliance.
3.4 Recognising the importance of open communications when
building confidence between regulators, implementing Work
Programmes and deepening cooperative activities, the
Participants will seek to:
(i) Engage with relevant regulatory authorities;
(ii) Promote exchange of views and experiences; and
(iii) Share information on regulator approaches and other
relevant matters.
3.5 Further Work Programmes may be established by mutual
decision of the Participants at any stage.

Paragraph 4 Good Regulatory Practice
4.1 Where a Work Programme relates to implementing principles of
GRP, the Participants will work together to build effective
mechanisms to promote the development and adoption of better
quality technical regulation.
4.2 The Participants will enhance their understanding of each
others ’ regulatory practices with a view to promoting
quality regulation and, where appropriate, regulatory
alignment. This can be facilitated through exchanges on a
range of issues, including but not limited to:
(i) Transparency provisions;
(ii) Public consultations;
(iii) Impact assessment methodologies;
(iv) Risk assessment methodologies; and
(v) Conformity assessment procedures.
4.3 The Participants will ensure, with respect to transparency
and participation of the public, that their regulatory
procedures include the opportunity for the Participants and
all interested parties to have meaningful input which
receives reasonable consideration.

Paragraph 5 Mutual Recognition
5.1 Where a Work Programme relates to mutual recognition, the
Participants, taking into account their respective
administrative procedures, will promote positive
consideration and appropriate use of a range of possible
mechanisms to facilitate the cross-border acceptance of
conformity assessment results.

Paragraph 6 Standards Development Activities
6.1 Where a Work Programme relates to standards development
activities, the Participants will promote cooperation
between their respective Standards bodies, in respect of the
regulatory standards that are referenced in technical
regulations and fall within the responsibility of the
respective implementing agencies, including by encouraging:
(i) The exchange of normative documents, information and
periodicals published by the respective official
standardisation bodies, catalogues of official standards,
separate official standards and standards programmes for
the purpose of enhancing mutual understanding;
(ii) Participation of specialists/experts, as observers, at
each other ’ s officials technical committees for
standards development and for collaboration on important
standardisation issues; and
(iii) Cooperation in comparatively assessing specific product
safety standards and in initiating standardisation
activities according to their respective rules and
procedures.

Paragraph 7 Market Surveillance of Consumer Products
7.1 Where a Work Programme relates to market surveillance of
consumer products, the Participants will exchange a range of
information to help ensure the safety of consumer products,
including:
(i) General information on market surveillance and enforcement
activities;
(ii) Risks of products;
(iii) Major withdrawal/recall operations;
(iv) Incident analysis and hazard alerts;
(v) Annual reports, case studies or statistics relating to
consumer product safety; and
(vi) Other documents, discussion papers or techniques on
issues relating to consumer product safety.
7.2 The Participants will cooperate on the development and
implementation of risk management principles including
product monitoring, safety, compliance and enforcement
practices. The Participants will consider, on a case-by-case
basis and subject to resource and other limitations,
implementing safety training programmes, expert exchanges
and other activities that are considered to be mutually
beneficial.

Paragraph 8 Confidentiality
8.1 The Participants will ensure confidentiality concerning
documents and information designated as such that are
received within the framework of this Arrangement. Such
confidential information will only be transferred to a third
party after gaining the written consent of the Participant
that provided the information.

Paragraph 9 Implementation
9.1 The Participants may, where necessary, jointly establish
working groups to facilitate the discussions on Work
Programmes established under this Arrangement.
9.2 Each Participant will identify a contact point for
communications within each working group and notify this to
the other Participant.
9.3 The Participants will regularly review the implementation of
Work Programmes established under Paragraph 3 with a view to
evaluating the effectiveness of actions in fulfilling the
purpose of this Arrangement.
9.4 The Participants will record all decisions, including
designation of working group contact points under Paragraph
9.2, designation of liaison points under Paragraph 10, and
the establishment of further Work Programmes under Paragraph
3.5, by exchange of letters which will be annexed to this
Arrangement.

Paragraph 10 Liaison Points
10.1 Each of the Participants will designate liaison points to
whom correspondence and communications concerning this
Arrangement will be directed.

Paragraph 11 Coming into Effect, Review and Termination
11.1 This Arrangement will come into effect on the date of the
last signature.
11.2 The Arrangement, or any Annexes to it, may be reviewed at
any time by the written request of the representatives of
either Participant, and may be changed at any time by
written consent of both Participants.
11.3 Either Participant may terminate this Arrangement by giving
six months written notice to the other Participant.

Signed in duplicate in the Chinese and English languages, each
text having equal validity. In the case of any divergence of
meaning between the two texts, the English text will prevail.

For the Taipei Economic For the New Zealand
and Cultural Office in Commerce and Industry
New Zealand: Office:
Tsai, Erh-huang Michelle Slade
Representative Director
Signed at Wellington Signed at Taipei this 4th
this 16th day of day of March 2010
February 2010