BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, April 24, 2023 (SKNBS) – The St. Kitts and Nevis Bureau of Standards is pleased to announce that as of January 2023, it acquired full member status in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Our upgrade from correspondent to full-paying member was achieved with the help of governmental support. The SKNBS became a correspondent member in 2016 with some rights and privileges within ISO. However, our new status allows us all rights, benefits, and obligations within the ISO system in accordance with clause 2 of the ISO Rules of Procedures.
ISO is an independent, non-governmental organisation established in 1947 and based in Geneva, Switzerland. It boasts a membership of 168 national standards bodies from across the globe. It is the largest international standards development organisation and St. Kitts and Nevis is its smallest full-paying member.
As the national authority charged with the responsibility to protect the environment, the health and safety of our people, and facilitating international trade, our active membership in relevant regional and international organisations is paramount to our ability to efficiently execute our obligations.
Our membership in ISO allows the SKNBS to continue to adopt internationally recognised standards that meet the needs of our local communities. Our membership also demonstrates our commitment to the quality, safety, and efficiency of our local goods and services.
As full members of ISO, we have the right to participate in the development of ISO standards by nominating local experts to a greater range of ISO technical committees. This ensures our equal voice in the ISO international standardisation process where we can influence how and what standards are developed and how our Federation participates in international trade through our ability to propose and vote on standards and to sit on various ISO governing bodies such as ISO Council.
Additionally, we are the only national entity with the authority to represent ISO and to locally adopt, promote, and sell ISO standards and to use the ISO name, copyright, and trademarks.
Furthermore, we now have the right to participate in the development of ISO policies and in the governance of the ISO organisation.
Our new full-paying member status in ISO further allows the Federation to meet our international obligations, build the capacity of our local experts and other national organisations, and effect greater international market penetration as we develop our standardisation strategy to meet local and global economic, social, and environmental challenges.
This achievement builds on other recent achievements of the SKNBS such as our current work developing a national vehicle standard, the upgrading of the metrology laboratory, and the procurement of a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) funded GMS machine that will be of great benefit to our agro-processors.
The SKNBS remains committed to standards and quality.
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