Through on-going dialogue with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) have managed to secure an update to the organisation’s trade recommendations to include references to national accreditation systems and the global arrangements. IAF and ILAC have actively participated in the UNECE Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation & Standardization Policies, which works to:
- Promote the use of standards by policy-makers and business as a tool for reducing technical barriers to trade, promote increased resilience to disasters, foster innovation and good governance
- Promote the use of standards in the implementation of UN-wide goals, including the implementation of the Agenda 2030 and the Sendai framework for action
Sixteen UNECE recommendations have been adopted to address standardization and regulatory issues. They set out good practice regarding Regulatory cooperation, Metrology, Standards and Norms, Conformity assessment, and Market surveillance.
While these recommendations are not binding and do not aim at rigidly aligning technical regulations across countries, they are used to encourage policy makers to base their regulations on international standards to provide a common denominator to the norms that apply in different markets. ILAC and IAF members are encouraged to make their national authorities aware of these recommendations.
