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The UNIDO-ILAC-IAF MoU was reaffirmed during a signing ceremony held at the UNIDO offices on 24 November 2017 in Vienna, Austria.
The MoU acknowledges the need to maintain strategic partnerships in the field of accreditation, as part of conformity assessment, in order to enhance the impact of industrial development on economic growth.
Information on the UNIDO, ILAC and IAF partnership, including a copy of the reaffirmed MoU and the latest press release is available here.
Jon Murthy, the ILAC and IAF Communications Chair, will be presenting at The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Working Party 6 on 30 November 2017. Working Party 6 works on Regulatory Cooperation & Standardization Policies to lower costs, facilitate trade & improve access to critical technologies, while protecting the health, safety of consumers, workers, & preserving our natural environment.
The session will provide an overview of how the activities of ILAC and IAF map to support the UN’s Goals and Targets of Agenda 2030 in the fields of clean energy, clean water and sanitation, health and wellbeing, industry, innovation and infrastructure. Further information is available in this UNIDO brochure on how accreditation supports these goals.
ILAC and IAF have developed initiatives to promote the adoption of standards and accreditation to help meet the 2030 targets. The Public Sector Assurance is a website developed by the global conformity assessment community to promote the use of standards and accreditation by Governments and Regulators. Business Benefits is a newly launched site that showcases the financial benefits for the business community. These sites showcase the evidence in the value of standards and accreditation, thereby providing the case for greater adoption, and in turn a greater likelihood in contributing to Agenda 2030. The session aims to reinforce this message and encourage regulators to make greater use of standards and accreditation to meet their policy goals.
ILAC and IAF have established a close relationship with UNECE WP6. Last year, ILAC and IAF provided comments to make reference to the global arrangements and national accreditation systems, which were included into UNECE’s trade recommendations. 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.
Recommendation F: Creation and Promotion of International Agreements on Conformity Assessment
Recommendation G: Acceptance of Conformity Assessment Results
The Arab Accreditation Cooperation (ARAC) is an association of national accreditation bodies (ABs). The accreditation bodies are officially recognised by their national governments to assess organisations that carry out conformity assessment services against international standards. ARAC is therefore one of the main pillars of the Pan Arab quality infrastructure system in supporting intra-regional trade and the Arab Customs Union requirements.
ARAC coordinates and leads the Arab accreditation infrastructure to allow the results of conformity assessment services in one country, to be accepted by regulators and the market place in another country without further examination, for the benefit of the Arab community and the global economy.
ARAC has been a Regional Cooperation Body (RCB) member of ILAC since 2012.
Formal recognition of RCB’s under the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) is based on an evaluation of the RCB’s competence to operate an MRA by an ILAC team composed of independent peer evaluators from other ILAC recognised RCBs and accreditation bodies.
From September 2016 to July 2017, a joint ILAC and IAF evaluation team consisting of four evaluators, carried out an evaluation of ARAC to consider the recognition of the ARAC MLA to the ILAC MRA for the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies (CABs) for testing, medical testing, calibration and inspection.
This evaluation process included the following activities to confirm ARAC’s compliance with the requirements for a recognised region:
During the ILAC Arrangement Council Meeting on the 28th of October 2017, the final evaluation report was reviewed and a decision was taken to accept ARAC as a recognised region of ILAC and, in particular, the recognition of the ARAC MLA to the ILAC MRA was granted for calibration and testing (ISO/IEC 17025), medical testing (ISO 15189) and laboratory and inspection body accreditation programs (ISO/IEC 17020).
In preparation for the publication of the revised ISO/IEC 17011 Conformity assessment – General requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies, the IAF and ILAC have developed a plan to ensure that all accreditation bodies that are signatories to the IAF MLA and ILAC MRA transition to ISO/IEC 17011:2017 three years from the date of publication of the revised standard.
The IAF/ILAC ISO/IEC 17011:2017 Transition Plan is available for download here.
The USCPSC has issued a final rule prohibiting children’s toys and child care articles that contain concentrations of more than 0.1 percent on five phthalate chemicals, specifically diisononyl phthalate (DINP), diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP), di-n-pentyl phthalate (DPENP), di-n-hexyl phthalate (DHEXP), and dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP). The Congressional prohibition on three phthalate chemicals, specifically di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), under the CPSIA remains in full force and effect. Further information regarding the final rule are available here.
This final rule will be effective from the 25th of April 2018.
The Commission has also published a Proposed Rule for Acceptance of Third Party Laboratories for the analysis of phthalates content in children’s toys and child care articles available here.
Please note that comments on the Proposed Rule for Acceptance of Third Party Laboratories are due by January 10, 2018.
Jordan Accreditation & Standardization Systems – Accreditation Unit (JAS-AU) is now a Full Member of ILAC.
JAS-AU has become a signatory to the ILAC MRA for testing (ISO/IEC 17025), medical testing (ISO 15189) and calibration (ISO/IEC 17025). JAS-AU originally joined ILAC as an Associate member in 2003, and we are now pleased to welcome JAS-AU as a Full Member of ILAC.
The full list of signatories to the ILAC MRA is available here.
Ethiopian National Accreditation Office (ENAO) is now a Full Member of ILAC.
ENAO has become a signatory to the ILAC MRA for testing (ISO/IEC 17025) and medical testing (ISO 15189). ENAO originally joined ILAC as an Affiliate Member in 2011, then became an Associate member in 2013, and we are now pleased to welcome ENAO as a Full Member of ILAC.
The full list of signatories to the ILAC MRA is available here.
Kenya Accreditation Service (KENAS) is now a Full Member of ILAC.
KENAS has become a signatory to the ILAC MRA for testing (ISO/IEC 17025), medical testing (ISO 15189), calibration (ISO/IEC 17025) and inspection (ISO/IEC 17020). KENAS originally joined ILAC as an Affiliate Member in 2005, then became an Associate member in 2009, and we are now pleased to welcome KENAS as a Full Member of ILAC.
The full list of signatories to the ILAC MRA is available here.