CANADA’S INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL STANDARDIZATION NETWORKS
As governments around the world look to standards and accreditation as a way to improve their competitiveness, SCC’s international activities will remain critical to ensuring that standardization continues to help fuel Canada’s economy.
SCC plays a critical role in supporting Canadian businesses, particularly innovative organizations, as they expand and enter new export markets. By collaborating with and taking on leadership roles in national, regional and international standardization bodies from around the world, SCC helps to facilitate the trade of Canadian goods and services with these countries.
By taking on international leadership positions and being involved in key standardization committees, Canada has considerable input into governance and policy at the international level. This enables Canadian participants to improve Canada’s ability to compete globally by influencing and shaping marketplace rules. SCC’s CEO John Walter was elected as the president of ISO and began his two-year term on January 1, 2018.
Chantal Guay, SCC’s Vice-President*, Standards & International Relations, became a member of the PASC Executive Committee in September 2017. She is also the Convener of the Strategic and Regulatory Group (STAR) with ISO’s Committee on conformity assessment (CASCO), through which she participates in the Chairman’s Policy and Coordination Group (CPC) of CASCO. The CPC coordinates the technical work of CASCO and assists the CASCO Chair in identifying strategic conformity assessment issues.
Jason Hergert, SCC’s Vice-President, Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer, is Canada’s representative on IEC’s Information Technology Advisory Group (ITAG) and ISO’s Information Technology Strategic Advisory Group (ITSAG). Both advisory bodies seek to provide member-oriented advice on strategic IT matters. Mr. Hergert’s role in both groups will be increasingly important as IEC and ISO further enhance their collaboration.
Regionally, SCC continues to reinforce its relationships with the Pan American Standards Commission (COPANT) and the Pacific Area Standards Congress (PASC), regional organizations that comprise the National Standards Bodies with membership in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). In spring 2017, SCC hosted the annual meetings for both COPANT and PASC in Vancouver.
SCC is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Cooperation Forum (APCF) and the Forum of IEC National Committees of the Americas (FINCA), which represent the common regional interests of their member nations’ concerns at the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
As a recognized and active member of the International Accreditation Forum, the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation, the Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation and the Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation, SCC is also strategically positioned to influence and reinforce the value of accreditation both regionally and on the international stage.
SCC has Cooperation Agreements with Peru’s Instituto Nacional de Calidad (INACAL, signed in 2017), Bolivia’s Instituto Boliviano de Normalización y Calidad (IBNORCA, signed in 2017), Costa Rica’s Instituto de Normas Técnicas de Costa Rica, the American National Standards Institute (renewed in 2017), Mexico’s Dirección General de Normas (renewed in 2017), the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS, signed in 2017), the Standards Administration of China (SAC) and the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards. SCC also has a bilateral cooperation agreement with the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) to facilitate the implementation of the Conformity Assessment Protocol within the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. SCC also has a joint Cooperation Agreement with the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), and is a Companion Standardization Body member with CEN.