Seminar on “Accreditation and its Impact on International Trade”

The Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Accreditation Board  and Sri Lanka Standards Institution conducted a seminar on “Accreditation and its Impact on International Trade” successfully at the FCCISL recently.

Increasing demand on quality of products and services offered in external trade necessitate strict compliance with technical regulations, standards and other regulatory measures covering health, safety and quality and therefore development of effective and reliable mechanisms for assessment of conformity to technical regulations and standards is essential. The conformity assessment procedures adopted worldwide in trade and services demands that testing; inspection and certification are carried out in a transparent and reliable manner. 

The Sri Lanka Accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment (SLAB) has been admitted as a signatory to some Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRA) with international organisations and therefore the Test Reports and Certificates Issued by SLAB Accredited Laboratories in Sri Lanka and abroad are recognised and accepted internationally.

The objective of this seminar was to enhance the knowledge of Exporters & Importers on the subject of accreditation, accreditation schemes of Sri Lanka Accreditation Board (SLAB) on international trade, accredited agencies, recognition certification, inspection schemes, national regulatory system, application of regulation in   conformity assessment, constrains in relation to exports & imports and create awareness on world trade practice to overcome trade barriers. 

Didul Kodagoda Chairman, Sri Lanka Accreditation Board; Dr. L. N. Senaweera, Director General, Sri Lanka Standards Institution; Kulatunga Perera, Head, Research and Policy Advocacy Unit of FCCISL and former Sri Lanka Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organisation; and T. Wickaramasinghe, Acting Director /CEO, Sri Lanka Accreditation Board made presentations on accreditation and conformity assessment systems – LHDB, need of structured certification and inspection schemes – LNS, introduction to multilateral & regional trade rules on technical barriers to trade and conformity assessment Standards & Review of National Regulatory Framework in Sri Lanka –TW, during the seminar.

The seminar was attended by 40 participants representing both leading public sector organisations and private sector companies in large, medium and small categories representing a wide range of products and services.  

Post evaluation revealed that the seminar was of high importance in terms of information made available on a new subject area during the presentations made by all four facilitators and the relevance of the topic to their businesses.