FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 2005-07-12

Termination of SCC-NACLA Bilateral Recognition Agreement

OTTAWA – The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) today announced the termination of its bilateral recognition agreement with the National Cooperation for Laboratory Accreditation (NACLA).

This decision, part of ongoing efforts by the SCC to ensure the best use of its resources, was approved by the SCC's governing Council at its meeting on June 8, 2005 and comes into effect immediately. 

While SCC remains committed to promoting the mutual recognition of testing and calibration results between Canada and the United States, it has noticed some redundancy in the level of its participation with various regional and international groups and has undertaken to review and rationalize its involvement with these groups.

The rationalization exercise showed that there is overlap between the scope and geographical influence of NACLA and the mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) of more established regional bodies such as the Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) and, the InterAmerican Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC). Since many of the accreditation bodies within the NACLA agreement are also participants in these regional MRAs, they will continue to be recognized by, and work with the SCC. As a signatory to many other international arrangements including the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), the SCC remains active in promoting the mutual recognition of conformity assessment results among participating countries

The Standards Council of Canada is a Crown corporation with the mandate to promote efficient and effective voluntary standardization. The SCC coordinates Canada's participation in the development of international standards through organizations such as ISO and IEC and, as Canada's national standardization body, oversees the National Standard System. For more information on the Standards Council of Canada, visit www.scc.ca, or contact the Standards Council via e-mail at [email protected].

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