Israel’s Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Israel Katz submitted Wednesday to the Knesset’s Economy Committee a request to adopt the European standard as the exclusive regulation for the import of electrical appliances to Israel and to cancel the unique Israeli regulation which has much stricter standards that limit the models which can be imported into the country.
This move is intended to increase competition and bring down prices in the electrical appliance market in Israel, which is estimated at over 10 billion Shekels ($2.72 billion) per year. The reform will lower the cost of importing electrical appliances, increase competition in this economy and facilitate the parallel import of appliances.
In addition, electrical appliances with a higher level of energy efficiency will arrive in Israel, something that will lead to a reduction in household electricity consumption, a reduction in the cost of living and a reduction in pollution and emissions.
The reform also allows any importer of an electrical appliance to Israel (which is included in the reform) to do so without the mandatory physical inspection in a certified laboratory to check for conformity to the Israeli standard before importation.
As an alternative to the physical inspection, the importer must declare that the imported device meets the European legal requirements and provide the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure with documents proving this. It must also provide an energy rating label, where required.
