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• Conformity
Assessment has become today an essential element
of trade in the world. With the emergence of regional
free trade agreements and organizations as well
as the strong presence of the World Trade Organization
(WTO), it has become essential for organization
to demonstrate the conformity of their products
if they want to be able to sell it worldwide or
even at a national basis.
• Companies need to develop full understanding
& capacity of WTO requirement in order to
remain competitive and survive in the next era.
• At its simplest, conformity assessment
means checking that products, materials, services,
systems or people measure up to the specifications
of a relevant standard.
• Today, many products require testing for
conformance with specifications or compliance
with safety, or other regulations before they
can be put on many markets. Even simpler products
may require supporting technical documentation
that includes test data.
• With so much trade-taking place across
borders, conformity assessment has become an important
component of the world economy. Over the years,
many standards have been developed against which
products are assessed for conformity, as well
as the standardized test methods that allow the
meaningful comparison of test results so necessary
for international trade.
• Companies need to understand the technical
barriers to trade (TBT) notions, and how members
need to ensure that technical regulations, voluntary
standards and conformity assessment procedures
do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade,
in addition to understanding the existing WTO
Agreement, the rights and obligations of countries
under those Agreements, and the workings in practice
of those Agreements.
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Access Foreign Markets: Conformity Assessment