One of the main, objectives of the ASEAN Consultative Committee on Standards and Quality (ACCSQ) is to remove trade barriers that may exist because of standards, testing, certification and regulatory practices which are divergent among the ASEAN member countries. In order, to accomplish this task, ACCSQ focuses the main part of its work on the harmonisation of standards, the establishment of mutual acceptance arrangements in testing, calibration and certification as well as the transparency of information on standardization.


As for harmonisation, of standards, ACCSQ aims at aligning national standards with international standards. In the situations where national standards in ASEAN do not exist, efforts will be made so that the need for, harmonised standards in ASEAN is met through ASEAN cooperation within the standards development facilities of ISO, IEC or other relevant international standards bodies.

Where regulated products are involved, ACCSQ will recommend the establishment of minimum essential requirements such as for health, safety and environment.

Harmonisation of standards is carried out through the Technical Working Group 1 (TWG1)Standards and Technical Information. The first TWG 1 meeting held in Kuala Lumpur in July 1994 gave rise to the three programmes with three Lead Agencies responsible for each programme s follows:
(i) Develop a guideline for harmonising standards based on international practice - Thailand

(ii) Determine priority subjects for harmonisation based on basic standards and regulated products in the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) list - Philippines

(iii) Develop a programme for the harmonisation of minimum essential requirements - Malaysia

In the second meeting (September 1994) in Bangkok, decisions were made on the format, layout and content of the draft Guidelines for Harmonisation of National Standards in ASEAN Member Countries Based on International Standards proposed by Thailand. As for, prioritization, of products for, harmonisation, the meeting accepted the list of Quality System Standards ad advised that . a study be initiated by the Philippines so as to be able to begin the list of regulatory items in the CEPT list.

Aside from the identification of basic standards for harmonisation, eight product group consisting of cements, plastics, rubber products, electrical/electronic products, chemicals, ,vegetable oil, pulps and textiles were identified in the third meeting held in the Philippines,.

Besides, the specific list for each group will also be made before developing the list of products for harmonisation of minimum e-essential requirements which was discussed in the fourth meeting in Indonesia. Progress of this activity will be reported in the next issue of the Bulletin.

TWG 1 believes that harmonization of standards will facilitate intra- and extra- ASEAN trade and enable ASEAN to realize the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).