International Cooperation

"Creating conditions for mutual recognition of conformity assesment results produced by of accredited bodies in the international and interstate/regional level" is mentioned as one of the objectives of accreditation in accordance with article 43 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus N 437-3 of October 24, 2016 «On assessment for compliance with technical requirements and on accreditation of conformity assessment bodies".

This requires from BSCA to establish cooperation in the field of accreditation in all regions where Belarusian goods are sold (50% of the goods produced in Belarus are exported).

Thus, BSCA represents Belarus in the field of accreditation in the following regional and international organisations.

	EUROPEAN CO-OPERATION FOR ACCREDITATION (EA) EA exists to coordinate and lead the European accreditation infrastructure to allow the results of conformity assessment services in one country be accepted by Regulators and the market place in another country without further examination through the EA Multilateral Agreement. The EA MLA provides a framework to realise the objective ‘Accredited once, accepted everywhere’. A Bilateral Agreement (BLA) between an EA Associate member (or a NAB with a contract of cooperation with EA) and EA has the same purpose as the EA MLA. BSCA became an associated member of EA in 2011 (EA Resolution 2011 (28) 03). The Associate Membership Agreement was signed in Warsaw, Poland on 23 November 2011. On October 3, 2018 in Budapest (Hungary), in the framework of the 40th meeting of the EA Multilateral Agreement Council (MAC), the positive decision was made to join the accreditation body of the Republic of Belarus to the EA BLA for: Testing laboratories according to ISO/IEC 17025; Calibration laboratories according to ISO/IEC 17025; Certification bodies for Persons according to ISO/IEC 17024; Certification bodies for Products according to ISO/IEC 17065; Certification bodies for Management systems according to ISO/IEC 17021-1. On October 26, 2020 in Paris (France) in the framework of the 45th meeting (online) of the EA Multilateral Agreement Council (MAC) the positive decision was made to join the accreditation body of the Republic of Belarus to the EA BLA for: Medical Examination (ISO 15189) Inspection (ISO/IEC 17020) Proficiency Testing Providers (ISO/IEC 17043) EA General assembly resolutions can be found here.
	INTERNATIONAL LABORATORY ACCREDITATION COOPERATION (ILAC) ILAC is the international authority on laboratory, inspection body, proficiency testing provider and reference material producer accreditation, with a membership consisting of accreditation bodies and stakeholder organizations throughout the world. ILAC aims to demonstrate the equivalence of the operation of its Member Accreditation Bodies through this Arrangement. As a consequence, the competence (within the accredited scopes) of laboratories, inspection bodies, proficiency testing providers and reference material producers accredited by these accreditation bodies is demonstrated and recognised by all signatory accreditation bodies. The market can then be confident in accepting certificates and reports issued by the accredited laboratories, inspection bodies, proficiency testing providers and reference material producers. BSCA has been an associated member of ILAC since 2011. The resolution of the 15th ILAC General Assembly on accepting BSCA as an associated member of ILAC was adopted on 21 December 2011 in Sydney, Australia - see the ILAC Resolution N15.03. Since October 5, 2018 BSCA has been the ILAC MRA signatory in the field of Testing (ISO/IEC 17025) Calibration (ISO/IEC 17025) Since June 5, 2020 BSCA has been the ILAC MRA signatory in the field of Medical Examination (ISO 15189) Inspection (ISO/IEC 17020) Proficiency Testing Providers (ISO/IEC 17043) The resolutions adopted by ILAC General assemblies can be found at ILAC website.

	INTERNATIONAL ACCREDITATION FORUM (IAF) IAF is the world association of Accreditation Bodies providing accreditation on certification bodies (management systems certification bodies, products certification bodies, personnel certification bodies). The primary purpose of IAF is to establish and maintain Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA). The purpose of the IAF MLA is to allow accreditations and the certificates issued by certification bodies accredited by members of the MLA to be recognised by the other members of the MLA. The objective is that the MLA will cover all accreditation bodies in all countries in the world, thus eliminating the need for suppliers of products or services to be certified in each country where they sell their products or services (certified once accepted everywhere). Membership of the MLA is based on peer evaluation of each applicant for membership of the MLA and continued surveillance of each member to ensure and confirm that all the members of the MLA operate their accreditation programs, and are implementing the Guidelines, consistently and in an equivalent way. BSCA became a member of the IAF on September 11, 2015 - see the IAF General Assembly resolution 2015-09. The official documents confirming BSCA membership in IAF (Code of Condact and Memorandum of Understanding) were signed during IAF General Assembly in Milan, Italy. Since October 17, 2018 BSCA has been the IAF MLA signatory in the field of Product Certification (ISO/IEC 17065) Management Systems Certification (ISO/IEC 17021-1) Certification of Persons (ISO/IEC 17024) The resolutions adopted by IAF General assemblies (annual meetings) can be found at IAF website.
	International Halal Accreditation Forum (IHAF) http://www.ihaf.org.ae/ Since October 20, 2019, the BSCA is a full member of the IHAF (see the Minutes GA 4/2019).
	The Interstate Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification of the Commonwealth of Independence States (EASC) http://easc.by/en/ More information about the activities of the BSCA under the EASC can be found here.
	Interregional Association for Standardization (MAC) The BSCA represents the Republic of Belarus on accreditation in the Interregional Association for Standardization (headquartered in Ankara, Turkey).