After on-going discussions with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), ILAC and IAF have managed to secure an update to the organisation’s trade recommendations to include references to national accreditation systems and the global arrangements. ILAC and IAF have actively participated in the UNECE Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation & Standardisation Policies which works to:

• Promote the use of standards by policy-makers and businesses as a tool for reducing technical barriers to trade, promote increased resilience to disasters, foster innovation and improve 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

16 UNECE recommendations have been adopted to address standardisation and regulatory issues. They set out a good practice regarding regulatory cooperation, metrology, standards and norms, conformity assessment and market surveillance.

Further information regarding these recommendations is available here.