Appendix 6 - The Asia Pacific Legal Metrology Forum, and The Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation
The Asia Pacific Legal Metrology
Forum
The Asia-Pacific Legal Metrology Forum (APLMF)
was established in 1994 on the initiative of the Australian National Standards
Commission. The forum has developed an active program that supports the APEC agenda.
It seeks to establish the requirements for mutual recognition of measurements
and test results and harmonising legislative and technical requirements. The
APLMF attends the APEC Standards and Conformance Sub Committee meetings and is
recognised by that Committee as the Specialist Regional Body (SRB) for trade
and legal metrology.[1]
The Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation
The Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation
Cooperation (APLAC) was established, also as an Australian initiative, to enable
laboratory accreditation organisations in the region to harmonise practices and
to provide assistance to each other. The majority of APEC economies are also
members of APLAC.
APLAC’s major aim is to provide for a
multilateral mutual recognition agreement between all those accreditation
bodies which can demonstrate to their peers that they meet world class
standards of operation. This demonstration of competency by the accreditation
bodies, according to NATA, is essential for the development of confidence in
the laboratories that they accredit, and thus, confidence in the test data
accompanying traded products.[2]
As part of an overall development plan to
support the Bogor objectives to
promote market access, the SCSC set an objective to establish a multilateral
mutual recognition agreement within APLAC by the year 2000, with a membership
of accreditation bodies in at least six, and ideally nine, member economies.[3] The first step toward this goal
was taken last year when five APEC countries were among the signatories to the
Asia-Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Conference Mutual Recognition
Arrangement. This landmark agreement was achieved largely through the
leadership provided by NATA and made possible by the funding support provided
by the Australian government (through DIST and AusAID).[4] At the 1997 Ministers’ Meeting
in Vancouver, ministers urged
additional members to participate in APLAC.
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