The CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards & Quality (CROSQ) has made yet another stride in its efforts to bring international attention to the work of the region in standards and quality services development.
As part of its strategic objective to further support of Member States’ aspirations, develop deeper relations with international and other regional organisations, CROSQ has developed and signed a Collaboration & License Agreement with Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL). This agreement was signed at the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) General Assembly in South Africa on 16 September 2019.
Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing its mission through the discovery and application of scientific knowledge. The organisation conducts rigorous independent research and analyses safety data, convenes experts worldwide to address risks, shares knowledge through education and public outreach initiatives, and develops standards to guide safe, sustainable commercialisation of evolving technologies.
UL devotes resources towards research, education and outreach in five key areas of concentration and together their work strives to improve standards of quality worldwide. These keys areas are as follows:
- Battery Safety
- Chemical Safety
- Data Science
- Electrical product safety
- Fire Safety
This collaboration between CROSQ and UL will provide a framework to:
- Promote communication between the two organizations;
- Avoid duplication of work efforts where possible;
- Increase knowledge of each other’s standards development activities;
- Utilize the resources of UL to strengthen the CARICOM Regional standards system; and
- Allow for the acceptance and use of UL Standards in CARICOM where determined to be appropriate by CROSQ and its network of National Standards Bureaux.
In furtherance of this, both parties will arrange for semi-annual discussions on the status of activities associated with this agreement.
Against this background and in an effort to commence implementation of the provisions set out in the UL/CROSQ Collaboration and Licensing Agreement, a workshop will be held for the CROSQ Council members on the margins of the 35th Meeting of the CROSQ Council on 1 October 2019 on the premises of the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards commencing at 8:30 am.
The objectives of this workshop are to:
- create better understanding between our two organizations;
- provide an overview of UL, its standards development process and system;
- overview UL’s catalogue of standards, areas of focus;
- conduct a needs analysis of CROSQ and members; and
- identify possible further areas of collaboration based on the Member States’ needs, including cascading the agreement to the national level in the form of mirror agreements.
