Quality infrastructure

Quality infrastructure relates to all fields of metrology, standardization and testing, of quality management and conformity assessment, including certification and accreditation. In the past, the abbreviation MSTQ (Metrology, Standardization, Testing and Quality Assurance) was used for this combination of single elements.

Quality infrastructure must ensure:

- elaboration and implementation of technical regulations for products and passage from compulsory standards to voluntary ones;
- application of good practice code regarding standardization;
- elimination of all measures that pose trade barriers - not only customs taxes and quantitative restrictions, but all the measures with equivalent (protectionist) effects.

Quality infrastructure: Definition adopted in June 2017 by the DCMAS Network (BIPM, IAF, IEC, ILAC, ISO, ITC, ITU, OIML, UNECE and UNIDO) + the World Bank.

“The system comprising the organizations (public and private)together with the policies, relevant legal and regulatory framework, and practices needed to support and enhance the quality, safety and environmental soundness of goods, services and processes.

The quality infrastructure is required for the effective operation of domestic markets, and its international recognition is important to enable access to foreign markets. It is a critical element in promoting and sustaining economic development, as well as environmental and social wellbeing.

It relies on: • metrology • standardization • accreditation • conformity assessment, and • market surveillance”