Finland - Reducing costs of conformity assessment for EU exporters

When European companies sell their industrial products to markets outside the EU, they are often required to demonstrate compliance with local health and safety regulations. The authorities may set specific standards for products entering their markets, and they may require certain proof that those standards are respected. Coping with different requirements in different markets can be cumbersome and costly for EU companies, especially smaller ones.

Therefore, the EU negotiates with their trading partners to achieve mutual recognition of test results and certificates for certain industrial products. This makes trade faster and cheaper for EU companies, while maintaining a high level of safety.

The EU has Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRA) in place with Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States.

These agreements not only help European exporters, but they also create business opportunities for European test labs to have their results and certificates recognised under the agreements.

Mutual recognition boosts business for European test labs

Verkotan Oy, a Finnish test lab, has obtained accreditation under the MRAs with Canada and with the US. The lab provides wireless performance testing to customers from all over the world, but notably to EU companies.

The Mutual Recognition Agreements represent an important business opportunity for testing labs like ours. It is much easier to sell our services as an accredited laboratory, and our accreditation has boosted our sales considerably.

Miia Nurkkala,
Co-founder & laboratory manager,
Verkotan 

Verkotan estimates that 90% of their customers request certification for the US or Canada. Without MRA accreditation, the company would be unable to serve those clients, and the business would not have achieved the growth it has enjoyed since the start in 2014. Verkotan has also grown in terms of employees, from five at the beginning to 14 now.

Making trade easier for EU exporters

Being a one-stop shop for wireless testing, Verkotan provides convenience for companies wanting to enter the worldwide marketplace with their wireless products.

“Our European clients find it more interesting to ship their products for testing inside the EU, rather than to have to cope with the logistics and the time difference between Europe and North America. With us they can obtain the mandatory certification of their products before putting them on the market outside the EU,” says co-founder Nurkkala.

Among other things, Verkotan is an FCC (Federal Communication Committee) authorised test laboratory. “Thanks to the mutual recognition agreement, our customers don´t have to get expensive tests done in the US. And thanks to our wide accreditation scope, the customers can also do other accredited tests required by other market areas with us,” explains Verkotan CEO Kari Komonen.

The fact that Verkotan’s testing expertise is recognised by the authorities in the US and Canada under the EU’s Mututal Recognition Agreements helps numerous EU businesses to access those two markets more easily and at lower cost.

The Access2Conformity tool integrated into the Access2Markets portal can help you find out if the industrial product you intend to export could be tested and certified in Europe instead of (re)doing these procedures in the export destination. Simply enter your product code in the search form and the information will appear in the search results.

Key facts

• Founded in: 2014
• Headquarters: Oulu, Finland
• Employees: 14
• Annual turnover: €1.3m in 2022