TTBS
The Trinidad & Tobago Bureau of Standards ( TTBS) is a body corporate established on July 8th, 1974 under the authority of the Standards Act 38 of 1972. This Act was repealed and replaced by Standards Act, No. 18 of 1997. TTBS operates under the aegis of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. It has a statutory responsibility for the quality of goods and services, which are subject to trade in the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, except food, drugs, cosmetics.

The primary role of TTBS is to develop, promote and enforce standards, in order to improve the quality and performance of goods produced or used in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. To ensure industrial efficiency and development; promote public and industrial welfare, health and safety; and protect the environment.

ISO
ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world’s largest developer of voluntary International Standards. International Standards give state of the art specifications for products, services and good practice, helping to make industry more efficient and effective. Developed through global consensus, they help to break down barriers to international trade.

IAAC
The InterAmerican Accreditation Cooperation is an association of accreditation bodies and other organizations interested in conformity assessment in the Americas. IAAC’s mission is to promote cooperation among accreditation bodies and interested parties of the Americas, aiming at the development of conformity assessment structures to achieve the improvement of products, processes and services.

IAAC was created in 1996, in Montevideo, Uruguay, and was incorporated in 2001 as a civil association according to Mexican law.

IAAC is a not-for-profit body that functions on the basis of cooperation by its members and interested parties. IAAC obtains resources from membership fees, voluntary contributions of its members, and project-based donations from regional organizations (particularly the Organization of American States). IAAC’s basic documents are the Memorandum of Understanding and Bylaws.

OIML
The International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) is an intergovernmental treaty organization whose membership includes Member States, countries which participate actively in technical activities, and Corresponding Members, countries which join the OIML as observers. It was established in 1955 (see the Convention) in order to promote the global harmonization of legal metrology procedures. Since that time, the OIML has developed a worldwide technical structure that provides its Members with metrological guidelines for the elaboration of national and regional requirements concerning the manufacture and use of measuring instruments for legal metrology applications.

ASTM
ASTM International, formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), is a globally recognized leader in the development and delivery of international voluntary consensus standards. Today, some 12,000 ASTM standards are used around the world to improve product quality, enhance safety, facilitate market access and trade, and build consumer confidence.
ASTM’s leadership in international standards development is driven by the contributions of its members: more than 30,000 of the world’s top technical experts and business professionals representing 135 countries. Working in an open and transparent process and using ASTM’s advanced electronic infrastructure, ASTM members deliver the test methods, specifications, guides, and practices that support industries and governments worldwide.

ILAC
The International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) first started as a conference in 1977 with the aim of developing international cooperation for facilitating trade by promotion of the acceptance of accredited test and calibration results. In 1996, ILAC became a formal cooperation with a charter to establish a network of mutual recognition agreements among accreditation bodies that would fulfil this aim. The ILAC Arrangement is the culmination of 22 years of intensive work.

On 2 November 2000, 36 laboratory accreditation bodies, full members of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), from 28 economies worldwide signed an ‘arrangement’ in Washington, DC to promote the acceptance of technical test and calibration data for exported goods.

The arrangement came into effect on 31 January 2001. The ‘ILAC Arrangement’ provides significant technical underpinning to international trade. The key to the Arrangement is the developing global network of accredited testing and calibration laboratories that are assessed and recognised as being competent by ILAC Arrangement signatory accreditation bodies.

The signatories have, in turn, been peer-reviewed and shown to meet ILAC’s criteria for competence. Now that the ILAC Arrangement is in place, governments can take advantage of it to further develop or enhance trade agreements. The ultimate aim is increased use and acceptance by industry as well as government of the results from accredited laboratories, including results from laboratories in other countries. In this way, the free-trade goal of  ‘product tested once and accepted everywhere’ can be realised.

NWML
The role of the National Weights & Measures Laboratory is to ensure UK measurement is accurate, fair and legal. It has the lead responsibility for policy on measuring instruments in use for trade and is responsible for the implementation of European Directives on measuring instruments and provides the focus for legal metrology in the UK.

CROSQ
The CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) was created as an Inter-Gorvernmental Organisation by the signing of an agreement among fourteen Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

It was provisionally applied after being signed at the Heads of Government Meeting in Belize City, Belize by eight Member States in February 2002. CROSQ was formally launched at its first General Assembly in St. Vincent in April 2002. The organisation’s headquarters was established in Barbados in April 2003 although the Headquarter’s Agreement was not signed until January 2007. Associate membership is open to members of the Caribbean community and political entities of the Association of Caribbean States. Once the CROSQ Council is of the opinion that the potential member is willing and able to enjoy the rights and assume the obligations of membership as set out in the Agreement, the member is accepted.