Importing Electrical Appliances to Brazil
The Brazilian import market of electrical appliances has presented a huge increase over the past years. Since this type of import has assumed such an important role in this industry, here we present information about the procedures, requirements and certificates necessary to develop this activity in Brazil.
The Brazilian industry of electrical appliances increased a lot, especially with in regards to products of China in 2011, 2012 and 2013. The imports derived from this country increased in 4% from 2011 to 2012, overpassing USD 2,4 million value in electrical appliances imported from China to Brazil in the first semester of 2013.
However, China is not the only Brazilian commercial partner in industry: the United States and Germany are also countries from where Brazil imports electrical appliances. Considering that in Brazil this industry is moved by the imports, the procedures, licenses and certificates involved in the process are very useful information.
SISCOMEX Registration
To import any type of product to Brazil it is mandatory have a registry in the SISCOMEX system. The operations that SISCOMEX is in charge of are:
- import declaration
- import license
- import registry
- radar.
More information about how to apply for SISCOMEX can be found in this article.
Accreditation to Organizations of Certification
The Accreditation to Organizations of Certification is developed by Dicor, which is the Division of Accreditation of Organizations of Certification. Dicor sets the technical standards for evaluation of companies responsible for issuing the product certification.
Dicor accredits the organizations of certification according to the fulfillment of the requirements established by the the following rules:
- ABNT NBR ISO/IEC Guia 65
- ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 17021
- ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 17024
The General Coordination of Accreditation of Inmetro, or Cgcre, is the organization responsible for conceding the accreditation to legal entity or private person in order to allow the import, production or commercialization of their products. The applicant must send a form (that can be found here) and upload the documentation listed at Inmetro's web page, in the section Documents needed for assessors/technical experts. He must upload it through Orquestra, the online system of Inmetro that can be accessed here.
Mandatory Certification to Electrical Appliances
Recently, all electrical appliances produced locally or imported must present specific certification to be commercialized in Brazil. Inmetro approved conformity assessment requirements to these products, and had also instituted a compulsory certification to all of them, issued by Organismos de Certificação de Produtos or OCP, which is the institution responsible for the certification of the product and its accreditation to Inmetro.
In sum, all electrical appliances available in the Brazilian market must be certificated by this organization and and must also contain a specific stamp. These measures were approved in order to guarantee more quality in the electrical goods and more safety to the consumers.
Conformity Assessment Requirement Certificate
In order to commercialize the electrical appliances the legal entity or the private person responsible for the import or production of these products must obtain the Product Conformity Certificate,by Inmetro that should have the information below:
- company's name, CNPJ and trade name of the applicant
- address
- company's name, CNPJ and trade name of the producer (only if the applicant company is not the producer too)
- issue and expire date of the Conformity Certificate
- identification of the product in question
- name, number of registry and signature of the responsible for the conformity assessments.
- identification of the lot.
Conformity Analysis Developed by Foreign Laboratories
If the conformity analysis was issued by foreign laboratories, it will only be accepted if the analysis methods were equivalent to the ones used by Inmetro. These laboratories must also be accredited in Inmetro or in an organization recognized by Inmetro, such as:
- Interamerican Accreditation Cooperation – IAAC
- European Cooperation for Accreditation – EA
- International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation – ILAC.
The analysis made by foreign laboratories will be only accepted if it is issued for less than one year.
Electrical Appliances with Certification
According to the definition of Inmetro "all electrical appliances and similar, with nominal voltage of less than 250 V in single-phase appliances, and over 480 V in others appliances" are required to have the mandatory certification and must present the specific stamp.
The products that don't have the certification will be prohibited to be produced, imported and/or commercialized, and the legal entity responsible for them will be subject to penalties and legal sanctions. The list of appliances that require certification is very large, and some examples are mentioned below:
- stove and oven
- shaver
- toaster
- electric grill
- multiprocessor
- electric blanket
- digital watch
- hair dryer
- sewing machine
- battery charge
- electrical kitchen equipments
- water and heating pump
- electric toothbrush
- refrigerator
- thermostat
- projector
- humidifier
- lawnmower
- electric fence
- leaf blower
- air conditioner.
Deadlines for the New Certification Measure
The certification of the electrical products mentioned occurred gradually according to the terms mentioned below:
- Since July 2011 the production and import of electrical appliances in Brazil had to be in accordance with the Inmetro rules.
- Since July 2012 the specified appliances could only be commercialized in the national market if they were in accordance with the conformity assessment requirements.
- And since January 2013 the commercialization of these electrical products is only allowed if they were in accordance with the conformity assessment requirements.