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The Kite Mark
An institution founded in 1901, which received a royal charter in 1929 and
took its present name in 1931. Its function is to formulate standards for building,
engineering, chemical, textile, and electrical products, ensuring that they
maintain a specified quality. Products so standardized make use of the Kite
mark logo as a symbol of quality. Manufacturers who use the Kite mark do
so under licence from the BSI on condition that products are subject to regular
inspection. Apart from maintaining quality standards in this way, the BSI attempts
to ensure that the design of goods is restricted to a sensible number of patterns
and sizes for one purpose, to avoid unnecessary variety.
The European CE Mark
The European Commission describes the CE mark as a "passport" that
allows manufacturers to circulate industrial products freely within the internal
market of the EU. The CE mark certifies that the products have met EU health,
safety and environmental requirements that ensure consumer and workplace safety.
All manufacturers in the EU and abroad must affix the CE mark to those products
covered by the "New Approach" directives in order to market their
products in Europe. Once a product receives the CE mark, it can be marketed
throughout the EU without undergoing further product modification.
By the year 2004, an estimated half of U.S. exports to the EU will require the
CE mark (Conformite Europeene). The CE mark indicates that a company has met
essential health and safety requirements for a wide range of products, including
machinery, electronics, medical devices, and telecommunications equipment. All
companies-those located in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere-have to
meet CE mark requirements in order to sell their products in the European market.
As a result, CE mark product certification is crucial for U.S. companies exporting
to Europe as U.S. exports to the European Union in 1999 totaled $151.6 billion.
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