Article 9 of the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade — the TBT Agreement — requires that members, wherever practicable, formulate and adopt international systems of conformity assessment where a positive assurance of conformity with a technical regulation or standard is required. Article 6 of the agreement specifically recognizes accreditation as a means for realizing positive assurance:

“6.1.1 adequate and enduring technical competence of the relevant conformity assessment bodies in the exporting Member, so that confidence in the continued reliability of their conformity assessment results can exist; in this regard, verified compliance, for instance through accreditation, with relevant guides or recommendations issued by international standardizing bodies shall be taken into account as an indication of adequate technical competence.”

The TBT Committee has recognized that the ILAC MRA is designed to facilitate acceptance of test results across economies and that acceptance of these results facilitates trade.