. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/W/73/Add.1
28 March 2003
(03-1798)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English
ISO/IEC GUIDE 68:2002 ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE RECOGNITION AND
ACCEPTANCE OF CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT RESULTS
Addendum
1. As a follow up to G/TBT/W/73, ISO is pleased to announce the completion of ISO/IEC
Guide 68:2002, Arrangements for the recognition and acceptance of conformity assessment results ,
which was published in December 2002.
2. The Guide was passed with a very high degree of support amongst the 140 country
membership of ISO, and the country membership of the IEC.  Significant contributions where made
by representatives of ISO and IEC members bodies from nearly every region in the world.
3. This ISO/IEC Guide provides an introduction to the development, issuance and operation of
arrangements for the recognition and acceptance of results produced by bodies undertaking similar
conformity assessment and related activities.
4. The activities to which this guidance is intended to apply are those related to the conduct of
unregulated marketplace transactions extending across borders from one country to another. While
agreements among governments pertaining to transactions of regulated goods and services may take
into account the agreements addressed by this Guide, the guidance provided here is introductory and
general in nature and may not specifically addr ess any special requirements that governmental
agreements might generate.
5. In fact, the Guide does use both the terms 'arrangement' and 'agreement'.  Only during the
period that the Guide was being developed has mutual recognition practice evolved to the point at
which a distinction between the terms is now made .  Many practitioners now accept that the term
'arrangement' generally relates to mutual recogn ition of conformity assessment results in the
unregulated or voluntary sector, and that the term 'agreements' relate to mutual recognitionframeworks agreed between governments or between regulators in regulated sectors.
I. ELEMENTS OF MUTUAL RECOGNITION ARRANGEMENTS
6. The Guide is divided into two main parts.  The first part contains statements capturing current
best practice in mutual recognition agreements.  The following elements of mutual recognition
agreements are covered:
• Title • Conditions of eligibility • Duration of the agreement
• Introduction • Individual obligations of signatories • Points of contact
• Signatories • Collective obligations of signatories • Official signatures
• Scope • Relationship with other agreement groups • Conditions of amendmentG/TBT/W/73/Add.1
Page 2
II. ESTABLISHING AN AGREEMENT GROUP
7. The second part of the Guide relates to establishing and maintaining an agreement group.
This focuses on the internal procedures necessary within a mutual recognition agreement/arrangement
to ensure the parties develop and maintain the trust of each other based on mutually accepting the
level of each other's competence.
8. Mention is made of both peer assessment and accreditation as a tool for achieving this trust.
9. The Guide states a number of internationally recognised principles and requirements for the
operation of the agreement group, some of which are as follows:
• procedures for ensuring transparency and document accessibility;
• the requirements for testing and inspection methods to be employed;
• the elements tested, inspected or assessed, which together make up the approval procedure;
• the methods of evaluation of measurement facilities and calibration of test equipment;
• procedures for evaluation of the report, resulting in a decision on approval or not;
• the means used to communicate a positive or negative result of the approval procedure to
involved parties (e.g. certificates, marks of approval);
• the application procedures followed by the test ing, inspection and certification/registration bodies
involved, and
• the methods of evaluation of the competence of personnel.
10. Examples and web links to existing mutual recognition arrangements are given at the end of
the Guide.
11. ISO recommends the Guide to WTO TBT members for they reference when preparing and
negotiating mutual recognition arrangements/agreements.
12. Copies of ISO/IEC Guide 68:2002 can be purchas ed from your national ISO member, or from
the ISO Online store (www.iso.org).
Mr. Graeme Drake
Head, Conformity Assessment
ISO/CASCO Secretary
International Organization for Standardization (ISO)1, rue de Varembé
1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 749 01 11
Fax: +41 22 733 34 30
E-mail: drake@iso.org
Web address: www.iso.org
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