CASCO Strategies 2002-2004

2. Major strategies for the years 2002-2004

2.1 Market relevance

2.1.1 Increasing the market relevance of CASCO work

It is essential that CASCO work be valuable and be perceived as being valuable to the global customers of conformity assessment services. CASCO recognizes that as an international standardization body within the global conformity assessment arena, it has the responsibility to understand global market needs and enhance the market relevance of CASCO work as elaborated further in 2.1.2 to 2.1.4.

2.1.2 Receiving market feedback to CASCO work
CASCO conducts a systematic review of ISO/IEC guides and standards for conformity assessment activities no later than five years after their publication. Nevertheless, a more rapid review cycle for those documents may be necessary for continually meeting changing market needs. CASCO has established a mechanism, the CASCO Market feedback panel, to identify the most appropriate periodicity of document review for users' needs. The Market feedback panel will:

a) collect market feedback on the published CASCO documents and

b) provide basic interpretation of them upon enquiries.

In this regard, CASCO recognizes that the aims of organizations such as IAF and ILAC are:

a) to ensure consistency of their own assessments,

b) to provide operational procedures that are uniformly applied, and

c) give further specificity and clarification on the basic, generic requirements of the relevant ISO/IEC standards and guides as necessary due to market needs.

CASCO understands that ISO/IEC standards and guides and application documents such as those of IAF and ILAC are complementary. CASCO holds the view that a perceived need for such application documents, clarifying basic, generic requirements of ISO/IEC documents, can be regarded as important feedback from users to further improve the ISO/IEC documents ([1]). CASCO will take into account such input at an early stage and updates its documents with regard to provisions of the generic natu 1257 re in a timely manner, using mechanisms such as amendments. This will minimize the necessity for such application documents.

2.1.3 Channelling stakeholder groups' views
CASCO recognizes that as a global conformity assessment forum, it has the responsibility to channel views from stakeholders on CASCO work by:

a) exploring further cooperation with governmental organizations including the WTO TBT Committee, UNIDO and UNDP to support their activities,

b) co-operating with the regional ISO liaison officers through ISO/DEVCO to receive views of developing countries on conformity assessment matters,

c) strengthening cooperation with ISO/COPOLCO to receive views of consumer associations on CASCO work,

d) accepting, in accordance with applicable rules, external liaisons with CASCO ([2]) so as to provide further opportunities for participation by international stakeholder groups directly involved in conformity assessment activities including accreditation bodies, certification bodies, testing laboratories, inspection bodies and appropriate international industry associations as users of CASCO work,

e) communicating with the regional standards organizations such as AIDMO, ARSO, COPANT, CEN/CENELEC, etc. for standards and the regional conformity assessment groups such as PAC, APLAC, IAAC, EA, etc. for conformity assessment matters, and

f) encouraging greater participation in the Industry Advisory Network (IAN) to identify specific industry needs and views on CASCO work.

2.1.4 Collecting information about the use of ISO/IEC guides and standards
The WTO TBT Committee recognizes the usefulness of ISO/IEC guides and standards on conformity assessment activities for benchmarking the technical competence and performance of conformity assessment bodies, and notes that they are widely used in developed as well as developing countries. In order to support the objectives of the WTO TBT Agreement, it is essential to promote the use of the ISO/IEC conformity assessment guides and standards around the world.

In order to pursue the above initiative, CASCO needs to have accurate knowledge about the current situation regarding the use of the ISO/IEC guides and standards in the world as a market feedback. CASCO will examine:

a) their use within conformity assessment systems and schemes, or

b) the reasons for their non-use, and

c) a cost-effective way of developing a useful data base to gather information on the use of ISO/IEC guides and standards.