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Pre-session panel: Back to basics

Quality infrastructure in Working Party 6

07 November 2022 10:00 - 13:00
Palais des Nations, Salle XXI (E-building) Geneva Switzerland

Background

Quality infrastructure is comprised of regulations, structures and bodies (such as accreditation, metrology, standards development bodies) that exist in a country/economy for supporting trade on a fair market to promote safe products and services in a sustainable society. The Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation and Standardization Policies (WP.6) has been bringing together experts on quality infrastructure since the 1970s and is uniquely placed to enable the relevant government bodies to exchange best practices and learn from the experiences of others.

Objective

This half day conference aims to review the key aspects of quality infrastructure to help guide the work of the experts of WP.6. It also aims to explain to member States and international organizations the basic principles of quality infrastructure.

Each speaker will address:

  • A general description of their area of quality infrastructure
  • Why that area is part of national quality infrastructure
  • How that area contributes to legitimate regulatory objectives (safety/environment/technology) and level playing field
  • In which manner does regional/international harmonization in this area address technical barriers to trade and trade in general
  • Future challenges (sustainability / digitalization / and-or other)

Target audience

The target audience includes all experts of WP.6, member States officials, international organizations and the general public.

Agenda

10:00          Opening and welcome Heidi Lund, Chair, WP.6  [Bio]

10:20          Standards Henry Cuschieri, ISO [Bio][PPT]

10:50          National technical regulation and international regulatory cooperation – Felinda Wennerberg, National Board of Trade, Sweden [Bio] [PPT]

11:10          Metrology Andy Henson, BIPM [Bio][PPT]

11:30          Market surveillance Sanela Putnik, SWEDAC [Bio][PPT]

11:50          Risk management Valentin Nikonov, GRM, WP.6 [Bio][PPT]

12:10          Conformity assessment Maureen Logghe, BELAC, European Accreditation [Bio][PPT]

12:30          Concluding remarks  Heidi Lund, Chair, WP.6