Vladivostok, 11 October 2017 - CEN, CENELEC and SARSO’s leaders formalized their cooperation today through the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding concluded in the realm of the IEC General Meeting. This Memorandum of Understanding offers tangible opportunities for greater technical and systemic alignment, with a view to facilitate trade in goods and services between Europe and South Asian countries.
The three organizations – CEN (European Committee for Standardization), CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) and SARSO (South Asian Regional Standards Organization) – have committed themselves to formalize their cooperation on issues of joint interest, in order to foster greater technical alignment between Europe and South Asian countries, including India, where a European standardization expert is already located to represent the three European Standardization Organizations (together with ETSI). By establishing a concrete dialogue and promoting the harmonization of standards at international level, they will help facilitate trade in goods and services between Europe and SAARC’s member states, thereby contributing to sustainable growth in these regions.
This MoU between CEN, CENELEC and SARSO provides a common framework for the sharing of information, transferring of technical knowledge, exchange of best practices in sectors such as textile, electrical and electronic goods, chemicals, food and building materials, as well as for supporting the work made by the international standardization organizations, namely ISO and IEC.
The partners took the opportunity of the signature ceremony to discuss a roadmap for the implementation of this MoU, which will include the organization of several events in 2018 aiming to strengthen the role of SARSO in the region, as well as activities which will support SARSO’s capacity-building strategy.
By developing and deepening their cooperation in the field of standardization, CEN, CENELEC and SARSO will contribute to overcome technical barriers to trade and thus facilitate trade between Europe and the whole South Asian region.