Annexes to the TC207/NGO Joint Discussion Paper

1. Dorothy Bowers, Chair, SC-4
2. Dick Hortensius, Secretary, SC-2
3. John Henry, Secretary, SC-3

1. Cherp, Aleg, ECOLOGIA (Belarus)
2. Deutschler, Alyssa, ECOLOGIA (USA)
3. Hillard, Jenny, Consumers Associations (Canada)
4. Jensen, Poul Buch, INEM, Denmark
5. Kimera, Henry Richard, Uganda Consumers Protection Association
6. Morrisson, Jason, Pacific Institute (USA)
7. Ogilvie, Ken, Pollution Probe (Canada)
8. Sang, Loo Koi, Malaysian Professional Centre
9. Schneck, Rita, Institute for Environmental Research and Education (USA)
10. Schmincke, Eva, Deutscher Naturschutz Ring (Germany)

Mrs. Margaret Kerr
Mr. Bill Dee
Mr. Ossie Dodds
 
 
Wednesday 7 June, 2000

ISO RESIGNATION

WWF has actively participated in TC 207 works from 1994 until 1998. This work has been challenging, but has drawn on our resources more than WWF can sustain. As a result our involvement during the last year has been dramatically reduced, down to a level that is insufficient to ensure a good quality of our work. This situation is not to the advantage of ISO TC 207, nor WWF's.

Therefore, and in the absence of any external funding mechanism for ensuring NGO participation in the process, we have no alternative than to resign from our status of liaison organisation to ISO TC 207 and its sub-committees 1 and 3.

We would like to point out that the lack of support for NGO participation in the standardisation process is not an issue that affects only ISO: you might be aware that European NGOs have stepped out of the work of CEN for similar reasons.

Nevertheless, we wish you all success in your future work in general, and in the deliberations of the Plenary meetings soon to come in Stockholm.

Yours truly,
Christopher Elliott
 
 
ANNEX 3. ICSCA RECOMMENDATIONS

The International Cooperation on Standards and Conformity Assessment (ICSCA), an informal association of companies from around the world, will be considering the following proposal at its next meeting:

Background:
One of the attractions of using consortia or fora for standardization is the ability to participate directly in the technical deliberations, advocating positions that you believe are correct. Historically the formal international standards organizations have worked on the basis of national delegations; and even at the working group level, the "individual experts" have been given national instructions and are to some extent constricted in the positions they can advocate. In a world with little international trade, and companies whose markets were for the most part domestic, this caused few problems. However today standardization, at least in some industries, is international and the interested parties are for the most part multinational also. The old model of forcing a single national body technical position at Subcommittee level and lower, regardless of the relative interests and capabilities of the organizations associated with those national bodies, is therefore no longer adequate.

Alternatives/Options:
Industry can change ISO and IEC to make them more relevant by opening the technical process to all interested parties. Alternatively, they can determine that the technical work ought to be in some other place and that ISO and IEC should be merely a final mechanism for blessing the agreements already reached.

Pro's and Con's:
Allowing direct technical participation at the international level will make it more likely that the resulting standards will be market relevant. Maintaining the national body process at the final vote level will provide safeguards for those with less technical resource and assurance that the standards are appropriate for all nations.

Proposal or Draft Resolution:
ICSCA calls upon ISO and IEC to allow direct participation by interested parties at the technical level, and urges its members to support such a change in their respective national bodies.

While this proposal is being presented to ICSCA for the intended benefit of industry, if approved by ICSCA and carried forward within ISO, it would also result in direct access for participation by all other interests, including NGOs.