WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/GEN/16 
24 May 2005 
 (05-2096) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
REPORT PROVIDED BY THE IEC AT THE  
TBT COMMITTEE MEETING OF  
22-23 MARCH 2005 
 
Agenda Item 4:  Technical Assistance
 
 
  The following report, dated 23 March 2005, is being circulated at the request of the IEC
. 
 
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I. INTRODUCTION 
1. This report presents an update of the IEC's in ternational standardization and conformity 
assessment activities since the last meeting of  the WTO TBT Committee held in Geneva on 4 
November 2004. 
II. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE ACTIVITIES 
A. ASIA PACFIC  
2. The third JISC/IEC Asia-Pacific Human Resour ce Development Seminar, organized by the 
Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC), was he ld at the IEC's Asia-Pacific Regional Centre 
in Singapore from 9 - 10 December 2004.  This ev ent, which was open to members and non-members 
of the IEC, built on the successes of the previous  two such seminars and focused understanding how 
the participating countries were using IEC Internati onal Standards and participating in the elaboration 
of International Standards.  Presentations fro m the 15 participating countries, as well as group 
discussion exercises were also included to give pa rticipant countries the opportunity to share their 
experiences and views.  Specific themes such as elect ricity transmission and distribution and safety of 
household and similar electrical appliances were also introduced to shed more light on the scope of 
IEC's activities.  Participating countries were: Br unei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, 
Korea (D.P.R. of), Lao P.D.R, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. 
B. A
FRICA  
3. The benefits of IEC International Standards, th e need to participate in the elaboration of 
standards, and the IEC Affiliate Country Programme were given prominence at the recent meetings of 
the African Regional Organization for Standardizati on (ARSO) held in Accra, Ghana in February 
2005.  On 23 February 2005, ARSO held its in augural workshop on 'Standardization and Poverty 
Alleviation in Africa'.  The purpose of this platform  was to review regional standardization in relation 
to socio-economic performance by regulators, sta ndards publishers, users and consumers to improve 
the quality of goods.  The IEC presented an update of  its activities and focused on the IEC Affiliate 
Country Programme.  Of ARSO's 24 members, thr ee countries are IEC members, while a further 15 G/TBT/GEN/16 
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 countries are participating in the Affiliate Count ry Programme.  The six remaining countries have 
been invited to participate in the Affiliate Programme. 
III. IEC CONFORMITY A SSESSMENT ACTIVITIES 
A. IEC
 AND ILAC 
4. The IEC and the International Laboratory  Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) signed a 
memorandum of understanding (MoU ) on 9 February 2005 that aims to improve efficiency and 
reduce assessment costs for testing laboratories.  Th e agreement makes official a working relationship 
that had been operating informally since Decembe r 2003.  The IEC/ILAC MoU also covers the 
common understanding of ISO/IEC 17025 General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories, which is dealt with by  the joint working group set up between the IEC 
Conformity, Assessment Board (CAB) and ILAC. 
B. O
PENNESS IN THE IECEE  SYSTEM  
5. Further to the questions received during th e WTO TBT Workshop on Conformity Assessment 
in June 2004, the IEC would like to clarify that the IECEE CB Scheme is for testing electrical and 
electronic products.  The CB Scheme allows particip ation by, and therefore offers its advantages to, 
manufacturing industry and its customers world-wide , even in the absence of IEC participation or 
membership in the IECEE system.  Membership  in the IECEE, and therefore full and entire 
participation in the CB Scheme, is open to countries  which are not themselves members of the IEC.  
This constitutes the first level of openness, and al lows every activity defined in the CB Scheme:  
testing of products and issuing of relevant test  certificates which will be recognized world-wide, as 
well as using the test certificates i ssued elsewhere.  Use of the CB Sc heme without membership in the 
IECEE is also possible, at two levels.  A manufacturer from a non-member country may apply to any 
CB Scheme certification body to obtain CB Scheme test  certificates, which are then usable in exactly 
the same way as any other.  The difference in this  case is simply that the certification body will be 
situated in a different country.  Finally, any distri butor, user or government regulator may require or 
make use of existing CB test certificates, indepe ndently of whether his country is itself directly 
involved in IECEE. 
IV. IEC FAMILY 
6. Since the last WTO TBT Committee Meeting, th e IEC Membership has increased from 65 to 
68, with three countries making the transition fro m participants in the IEC Affiliate Country 
Programme to Membership.  The three new Associ ate Members are: Kazakhstan (October 2004), the 
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (January 2005), and Kenya (February 2005).  There are two 
types of IEC Membership.  Full Membership allows  countries to participate fully in international 
standardization activities.  Full Members are Nati onal Committees each having equal voting rights.  
Associate Membership allows for limited participation of countries with limited resources.  Associate 
members may contribute to the work of up to four technical committees and subcommittees and 
attend IEC General Meetings, especially Council. 
7. Launched in June 2001, the Affiliate Country Pr ogramme is the IEC's direct response to calls 
from the WTO TBT Committee for the means to o ffer all WTO members the means to use IEC 
International Standards and to participate in th eir elaboration, as well as the IEC International 
Conformity Assessment Schemes.  The Programme  operates in a 100% electronic environment and 
allows participants to involve th emselves in the IEC technical work  according to needs and resources 
available.  It also offers free access to a basic library of IEC International Standards in electronic 
format, and through dedicated procedure, facilitate s the adoption of EC International Standards.  
Today the Programme counts 65 participating coun tries (down from 68 as three countries have now  G/TBT/GEN/16 
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 joined the IEC as members).  To date, 37 countri es have now started their basic library of IEC 
International Standards (up by 8 since the last TBT Committee Meeting), while 27 countries are now 
able to access the technical work in their selected area s of interest (up by 6 since the last meeting).  As 
the result of a facilitated adoption procedure, four countries have started to adopt IEC International 
Standards at National Standards or regulations.  A special Workshop for IEC Affiliate Countries is 
being organized to coincide with the IEC General Meeting which will be held in Cape Town, South 
Africa from 16-22 October 2005. 
V. REGIONAL CENTRES 
8. Following the successful performance of th e IEC's regional centres in North America 
(Boston, MA, USA) and the Asia-Pacific (Singa pore), the IEC will establish a Latin American 
Regional Centre in Brazil by mid-2005.  The Centre's  goals will be to promote the awareness and use 
of IEC International Standards, and to increase th e participation in the Commission's technical work.  
The Centre's activities will be targeted at IEC member and non-member countries. 
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION 
A. IEC  AND MERCOSUR 
9. A co-operation agreement between the IEC and MERCOSUR's standardization arm, the 
Asociación MERCOSUR de Normalización (AMN), ca me into effect on 31 January 2005.  The 
agreement was entered into by the IEC General Secretary Aharon Amit and the Executive Secretary 
of MERCOSUR AMN, Lilian Martinez de Alonso, the Director General of the Instituto Nacional de 
Technología Y Normalización (INTN ) of Paraguay.  The agreemen t's principal objective is the 
implementation of IEC International Standard s as regional standards among the MERCOSUR 
member countries, and to increase the awareness of  the IEC and its standardization activities among 
non-IEC member countries in the region. MERCOSU R currently comprises IEC members Argentina 
and Brazil, and IEC Affiliates, Paraguay and Urugua y.  The IEC has similar such agreements with 
CANENA (Council for Harmonization of Electrotechnical  Standards of the Nations of the Americas), 
COPANT (Comision Panamericana des Normas Tecnicas or Pan American Standards Commission), 
and EASC (Euro-Asian Interstate  Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification). 
B. COOPERATION BETWEEN IEC,  ISO  AND ITU 
10. Thirty participants from national standards bodi es and national committees have been invited 
to the second week long WSC Standardization Community  Management Course, to  be held in Geneva 
from 11 - 15 April 2005.  The course is being organi zed by the World Standards Cooperation (WSC) - 
the entity created by the IEC, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the 
International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) to  strengthen and advance the voluntary consensus-
based international standards system.  The cour se is intended to prepare managers for their 
participation in the future development of the in ternational standardization community and provide 
them with a detailed insight into the business.  The first such event was held in Geneva in September 
2004 and offered participants a high le vel preparation for their current and future participation in the 
international standardization process and commun ity.  The upcoming course is intended to do the 
same with sessions focusing on why Internationa l Standards are important, how they are produced 
made and used, and how the three international st andardization organizations function.  The first 
course was oversubscribed and as a result of the co mments received from participants, it was agreed 
to hold a second one to ensure that those who missed the first one could attend. 
 
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