International Quality Standards Must Be Flexible: OfficialInternational standards in the 21st century must be flexible and open to adaptation, modernization and improvement, a leading official of the International Organization for Standardization ISO) has said.ISO President Giacomo Elias said this when visiting the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) during this week, the Zimbabwe News Agency reported on Saturday. He said, "International standards in the 21st century are living guidelines and specifications." "They must retain a degree of flexibility and be open to adaptation, modernization and improvement, even withdrawal or replacement when changing circumstances, technologies or markets so demand," he said. To achieve the desired result among the interested parties, he said, the standards development process must first allow an essential level of consensus and a stable foundation on which to build an agreed route forward. Recognition of the importance of international standards came in different ways from people's everyday reliance on product safety, the availability of robust communications and a constantly increasing quality of service. The World Trade Organization's Agreement on Technical Barriers to trade emphasized the vital role played by international standards in providing the technical foundation for global markets and called on all governments to make maximum use of them in lowering unnecessary technical barriers to free trade, Elias said. The ISO is a world-wide federation of National Standards Bodies comprising 135 members, one in each country. In 1990, the SAZ joined ISO, whose objectives are to promote the development of standardization and related activities in the world with a view to facilitating international trade and to develop cooperation in the spheres of intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activity. |
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