The International Accreditation Forum (IAF) is an international grouping of bodies that accredit certification bodies - system certifiers (ISO 9000 series and ISO 14001), product certifiers and personnel certifiers. IAF includes regional bodies such as Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC) and European cooperation for Accreditation (EA). IAF members operate in conformance with the international standard for accreditation bodies, ISO/IEC Guide 61 (to be replaced by ISO/IEC 17011) and accredit certification bodies against specific standards covering technical competence in their field. In May 1998, the IAF established an international Multilateral Recognition Arrangement among seventeen accreditation bodies that had been evaluated by their international peers and found to be in conformance with the relevant standards. The signatory from Japan was the Japan Accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment (JAB). This agreement provides international mutual recognition of the accreditation bodies in the signatory countries and now includes 39 bodies from 34 countries/economies. This means that accreditation by foreign accreditation bodies is no longer necessary.

International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) began work in the 1970s as an informal grouping of laboratory accreditation bodies and was formally established as an international body in 1996. JAB was a founding member. ILAC has published a large number of guidance documents, including guidelines for the application of the international standard for laboratories, ISO/IEC 17025, and the international standard for laboratory accreditation bodies, ISO/IEC Guide 58 (to be replaced by ISO/IEC 17011). It also carries out activities to harmonize the work of different accreditation bodies.

Mutual Recognition within ILAC goes back a long way, with the first bilateral agreement being signed in 1979. More recently, ILAC members have established regional and multilateral Mutual Recognition Arrangements. JAB became a signatory to the ILAC MLA for laboratory accreditation in 1999. This MLA now includes 42 accreditation bodies from 32 countries/economies.

In 2000, the general meeting of ILAC, held in Washington, D.C., USA, agreed to the “ILAC Arrangement”. Under this Arrangement, ILAC members agree to: 1. mutually recognize that the accreditation results of individual testing laboratories and calibration laboratories are equivalent; and 2. mutually accept the testing/ calibration certificates issued by individual testing laboratories and calibration laboratories accredited by individual accreditation bodies.

ILAC groups accreditation bodies from four regions: Europe - European cooperation for Accreditation (EA); Asia/Pacific – Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC); Latin America - Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC) and Southern Africa - Southern African Development Cooperation for Accreditation (SADCA). ILAC aims to enhance the quality of the mutual recognition among the groups of regional accreditation bodies through peer evaluation.
Thanks to this ILAC Arrangement, mutual recognition that used to be contained within each regional laboratory accreditation cooperation grouping is now able to develop into a global mutual recognition arrangement, and the test and calibration certificates issued by accredited laboratories are mutually accepted by accreditation bodies throughout the world.

The approach to international mutual recognition put into practice by these groupings of accreditation bodies is a major step towards the objective of “one stop testing,accepted worldwide”.
In the area of laboratory accreditation especially, it is a mechanism by which data obtained by an accredited laboratory are accepted and used in different countries as if they were their own.
If this system becomes prevalent worldwide, it will rationalize the testing processes that used to be duplicated multiple times in international transactions. It will enable traders to enjoy many benefits, such as saving costs and cutting lead times for product to in the market.






As noted above, mutual recognition is not only through international organizations. Mutual Recognition Agreements are also concluded at the level of governments and regional organizations. This movement is especially active in the European Union, where a harmonized system is now in place enabling the results of tests or inspections carried out in one member country to be accepted in all other EU member countries. This covers all regulated products, including electrical apparatus and pharmaceuticals that are regulated to protect the safety of their people’s lives. Similar agreements in the regulated sector are also in place in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

All these must have convinced you that, in the world of standardization and conformity assessment, the movement towards worldwide harmonization is more and more active both in standards and in testing and certification schemes. This harmonization movement is expected to continue. In future, many more countries and international organizations will work towards accomplishing globalization and harmonization of standards and conformity assessment schemes. It is a trend of the times. There are a lot of accreditation bodies in the world, but the Japan Accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment (JAB) is the only accreditation body in Japan for accrediting bodies that certify ISO management systems (ISO 9000 series and ISO 14001). JAB is also an internationally recognized accreditation body for product certification, personnel certification and for the accreditation of testing and calibration laboratories. As such, it is the responsibility of JAB to cooperate in the international development of conformity assessment schemes.