G-Mark Kuwait

The G-Mark Kuwait recognises is the regional one, issued under two GSO technical regulations: <strong>BD-142004-01</strong> on low-voltage electrical equipment and appliances and <strong>BD-131704-01</strong> on toys. The Public Authority for Industry (PAI) is the Kuwaiti standards and conformity body. It adopts the Gulf regulations by ministerial resolution and runs KUCAS, the national pre-shipment conformity scheme, on top of them. A regulated-list appliance or a toy needs a Gulf Type Examination certificate from a GSO-notified body and the Gulf Conformity Tracking Symbol before it ships, and the consignment can still go through KUCAS at the Kuwaiti end. The type examination belongs to the manufacturer. The national step belongs to the importer.

Which products need the G-Mark to clear Kuwaiti customs?

The same two groups as anywhere in the Gulf. Low-voltage electrical equipment rated 50 to 1,000 V AC or 75 to 1,500 V DC falls under BD-142004-01, in full force since 1 July 2016. Toys for children under 14 fall under BD-131704-01, in force since 1 January 2014.

Inside the low-voltage scope, GSO's List No. 2 (TC143307-01) names the equipment that must go through the conformity assessment procedure in Annex 4 of the regulation: the household appliances, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, kettles, irons and fans, that a notified body examines first. Everything else in scope carries the mark on the manufacturer's own declaration, registered with GSO. On the Kuwaiti side, PAI publishes the ministerial resolutions (2-2015, 19-2015, 44-2015, 61-2017 and 67-2017) that adopt the Gulf technical regulations and GSO standards as Kuwaiti ones under the KWS GSO prefix. The 44-2015 list carries the GSO IEC 60335 and GSO IEC 60730 series, the appliance safety basis a notified body works from.

The mistake we see is a product read off List No. 2 by its everyday name instead of its GSO category. It ships on a self-declaration, and the first Kuwaiti inspector to open the file asks for a type examination certificate that does not exist. The notified body then starts from zero while the container waits.

Who applies for the G-Mark in Kuwait, the manufacturer or the importer?

The manufacturer, or its representative in the GCC, applies for the Gulf Type Examination and signs the Gulf Declaration of Conformity. The certificate covers a type and is not tied to any importer, so one document serves every distributor you appoint in Kuwait and in the other six GSO member states. The national step is the reverse: PAI's e-services carry the importer's data, and the KUCAS file is the importer's.

GSO's Gulf Conformity Mark page sets the terms. The mark is affixed by the manufacturer or its agent or legal representative in the GCC market, next to the notified body's identification number, at the end of the production control stage. The declaration is kept for at least ten years from the date of manufacture and shown to the market surveillance body of any member state on request. For G-Mark certification, Kuwait treats the manufacturer as the applicant and reads the declaration through PAI, whose Conformity Assessment Bodies Division keeps the register of conformity assessment bodies working in the country.

Keep the type examination in the manufacturer's name. When a Kuwaiti distributor applies for it, the distributor holds the one G-Mark certificate, Kuwait included, that every other Gulf market also needs, and changing distributor means a new type examination. Where you have no Gulf entity yet, we hold the Gulf declaration as your representative so the certificate stays with the product.

What is KUCAS, and does the G-Mark replace it?

KUCAS is the Kuwait Conformity Assurance Scheme, the national pre-shipment conformity scheme run by the Public Authority for Industry for regulated products entering Kuwait. The G-Mark does not replace it. The G-Mark proves the type meets the Gulf regulation; KUCAS checks the consignment against the Kuwaiti standard list before it clears. Which products are on that list is confirmed with PAI per shipment; the list moves with each ministerial resolution.

PAI reports to the Minister of Commerce and Industry under Law No. 56 of 1996. Its Standards and Metrology Department is the approved reference for standardisation in Kuwait, its Specifications Section sets the standards for national and imported products, and its Quality Laboratories Department runs an electrical laboratory of its own. Annex 1 of Resolution 61-2017 is, in translation, the list of Gulf technical regulations to be adopted as Kuwaiti ones.

The national step is per consignment. Budget for it on every shipment, on top of the 4 to 10 weeks the G-Mark itself takes on the Gulf page. A type examination done once does not shorten the third consignment's KUCAS step; it only shortens the file, because the Gulf certificate, the declaration and the tracking symbol are already there.

What goes wrong with G-Mark shipments at the Kuwaiti border?

Three things, in the order we meet them. A consignment arrives without the Gulf Conformity Tracking Symbol on the product, so the inspector cannot link the unit in front of him to the type examination certificate. A List No. 2 appliance ships on a self-declaration, which is the right route for the other low-voltage products and no route at all for the regulated ones. And the test report cites an IEC edition the notified body will not accept.

Under BD-142004-01 and a decision of the GSO Technical Council, presumption of conformity goes to the GSO standards and so to the latest publication of the IEC standard. A CB report to the previous edition of the relevant IEC 60335 part means a gap analysis and a partial retest before the notified body signs. The Technical Council also replaced Annex 1 of the regulation in October 2022 with TC-225310-01, a table of the voltage, frequency and plug and socket type used in each member state; the notified body reads the Kuwait row, and a sample with the wrong plug goes back before testing starts.

The tracking symbol failure costs most, because it cannot be fixed on the water. The symbol is a coded label that GSO's tracking system links to the certificate, applied with the mark at the end of production control. A container at sea cannot be relabelled, so the correction lands on the next shipment and the current one waits for a KUCAS decision. Print the symbols before the goods leave the factory.

The G-Mark and KUCAS in Kuwait side by side