News
China National Accreditation Service Delegation visits International Accreditation Service
Representatives from the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS) met with the International Accreditation Service (IAS) on May 19th at the IAS headquarters in Whittier, California. Both the CNAS and IAS provided presentations about their accreditation programs and discussed opportunities to further strengthen relations between the organizations.
CNAS and IAS are signatory members of the Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC), Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA). The APLAC MRA facilitates manufacturers, whose products are tested in laboratories accredited by an APLAC MRA signatory, to have the test reports recognized by regulatory agencies around the world subject to any further regulatory requirements that must be fulfilled. CNAS and IAS have cooperated in the past on acceptance of test reports in their respective economies and will continue to cooperate in this and several other areas related to accreditation, training and conformity assessment.
IAS accredits testing and calibration laboratories, inspection agencies, product certification agencies, special inspection agencies, inspection programs for metal building manufacturers, fabricator inspection programs, training agencies, curriculum developers, field evaluation bodies, building departments, and building department service providers. A recognized accreditation body since 1975, IAS is a nonprofit, public benefit corporation and a subsidiary of the International Code Council. IAS is one of the leading accreditation bodies in the United States and a signatory to several international mutual recognition arrangements (MRAs). For more information about IAS, visit http://www.iasonline.org/.
CNAS is the national accreditation body of China unitarily responsible for the accreditation of certification bodies, laboratories and inspection bodies, which is established under the approval of the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People’s Republic of China (CNCA) and authorized by CNCA in accordance with the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Certification and Accreditation. For more information about the CNAS, visit http://www.cnas.org.cn/index.htm1.
