The Gulf Mark for Low Voltage Electrical Products, Appliances & toys

Export2gulf is able to assist your organization to complete all technical requirements (Risk assessment report, product testing, certification & technical files) to obtain the gulf conformity mark G-Mark.

G-Mark now is mandatory For Electrical Low Voltage products and child’s toys that will be shipped and exported to the Gulf countries as defined within the BD142004-01 Low Voltage Technical Regulation.

The scope of G-Mark covers ALL household electrical products, for electrical products for commercial use it will be covered by Saber and SASO IECEE

The Gulf Conformity Mark is also known as G-mark is a certification mark used to denote products that comply with all technical regulations of the Gulf Cooperation Council. This means that the products bearing the G mark fulfill all the requirements of the corresponding technical regulations and have passed all conformity assessment procedures. The mark was introduced in Muscat on May 24, 2009.

The G Mark is considered one of the main tools of reducing technical barriers to trade and facilitating the free movement of goods across borders in the countries of the Cooperation Council for the Gulf countries. In its composition, it is a badge and not a quality mark, and indicates that the products meet at least the basic health, safety, and environment requirements.

G-Mark compliance timeline:

Enforcement of the G Marking scheme for low voltage electrical products and appliances went into effect in July 2016. All low voltage electrical products in scope (List two) entering the GSO marketplace after July 2016 must have the G Marking and meet every one of its requirements.

Self-declaration conformity assessment  Product List 1 for Regulated Products:

Regarding manufacturing procedures and processes, manufacturers of List one products need to have a process in place – typically a factory quality control system – to be able to make sure items are actually being manufactured and assembled in a controlled manner which includes production line testing to confirm the product quality and integrity and so as to maintain conformity within the design intent. Once all these elements have been completed the manufacturer is able to affix the proper G Marking to the item and draw up a written Declaration of Conformity.

Requiring Notified Body (NB) involvement Product List 2 regulated products:

Manufacturers must select a single Notified Body (NB) entity, to look at the technical design of a product and verify that the technical design of the product meets the demands of the applicable Gulf Technical Regulations and for the issuance of an evaluation report with a Gulf Type Examination certificate. The Notified Body must also ensure the manufacturing has a production-quality system implemented in order to confirm that the item is actually being manufactured in accordance with the technical specifications. The product manufacturer still must produce a Technical Construction file for every model of the product, and this documentation must include a risk analysis/assessment report and test reports, among the extra documentation requirements noted for List one products, but with the additional inclusion of the Notified Body issued evaluation report with Type Examination Certificate.

Product categories within List two are primarily in the area of IEC 60335 (Home Appliances), such as:

• Clothes Washer/ Dryer
• Refrigerator/ Freezer
• Food grinder/ Mixer/ Juice extractor
• Cooker/ Griller/ Oven
• Electric fans
• Electric heating apparatus
• Plug/ Socket
• Air conditioner
• Microwave oven
• Hair-dressing apparatus/ Hand dryer
• Water heater
• Toaster
• Electric iron

List of Requirements:

• (DOC) Declaration of Conformity by the Importer
• Declaration of Conformity (DOC) by the Manufacturer
• ILAC report / GAC / IECEE CB / test report

G-Mark compliance timeline for toys:

As of 1st January 2011, the “Gulf Toys Technical Regulation (GTTR)” has been uniformly enforced in most GCC Member States (The State of the United Arab Emirates, The Kingdom of Bahrain, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, The Sultanate of Oman, The State of Qatar, The State of Yemen and Kuwait).

To comply with this particular regulation, the GTTR stipulates that all toys entering into the GCC member states will need to get the GCC Conformity quality marking.

The regulation that has been implemented is almost the same as the European Toys Directive 88/378/EC which includes Module A and Module B+C, with more Gulf deviations. It might be mentioned here that module B+C which is actually an alternative for toy companies for application of the above’ G’ mark will be under the supervision of a Notified Body (NB).