Inventory of National Practices on Standards, Technical Regulations
and Conformity Assessment in the Western Hemisphere

Foreword

The success of market reforms in the 1990s has dramatically increased trade in goods and services and stimulated investment in Latin America and the Caribbean. Through unilateral actions, multilateral disciplines, and bilateral and regional accords, countries of the Western Hemisphere have moved deliberately and systematically to create conditions conducive to the negotiation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by the year 2005.

The role of trade liberalization as a motor of growth in the Hemisphere was recognized by the Heads of State and Government when, at the Summit of the Americas in December 1994, they decided to establish the FTAA. At the first meeting of Trade Ministers, held in Denver in 1995, the countries "ask[ed] the Tripartite Committee -- the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean -- to provide analytical support, technical assistance, and relevant studies within their respective areas of competence, as may be requested by the working groups."

This Inventory of National Practices on Standards, Technical Regulations and Conformity Assessment in the Western Hemisphere was prepared by the Trade Unit of the OAS for the FTAA Working Group on Standards and Technical Barriers to Trade. It covers the national practices of 30 countries with respect to those bodies responsible for elaborating standards and technical regulations, assuring conformance to international and national standards, and carrying out the functions of measurement and metrology, inspection and testing, and certification and accreditation of products and quality systems. The Inventory is an important document not only for the information it contains but also because it represents the first step towards bringing about greater transparency in a highly complex but critical area to the realization of trade promotion and liberalization in the Western Hemisphere. As such, it complements the work ongoing within the World Trade Organization through its Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade.

The Inventory also aims to help in advancing the dialogue on trade liberalization and economic integration among participants in the FTAA process. It is hoped that the Inventory may contribute to the success of the FTAA, as such an ambitious endeavor requires, inter alia, the availability of comprehensive and well organized information.

It is important to acknowledge the people who have made this particular publication possible. The members of the FTAA Working Group on Standards and Technical Barriers to Trade have supplied the information included in the Inventory. The coordinators of the FTAA Working Group from Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade - Claude Carrière (former), and Earl Weybrecht (present coordinator) - have been instrumental in guiding the process and in attempting to make the information in the Inventory accurate and up-to-date. Within the OAS Trade Unit, Sherry M. Stephenson, assisted by Helvia Costa Velloso, has been the liaison between the OAS and the FTAA Working Group on Standards and Technical Barriers to Trade, and has assumed direct responsibility for the preparation of the Inventory.