In today’s interconnected world, global trade has become a cornerstone of economic growth and prosperity. It allows countries to specialise in what they do best, encourages innovation, and creates opportunities for businesses to expand their reach beyond domestic markets. However, for trade to thrive, there needs to be a foundation of trust between trading partners. This is where accreditation plays a crucial role as a trust anchor.

That’s the focus of this year’s World Accreditation Day on Friday 9 June 2023, with the theme, Accreditation: Supporting the Future of Global Trade.

The importance of accreditation cannot be overstated when it comes to supporting consumer trust, ensuring quality, and maintaining safety standards. One of the primary functions of accreditation is to ensure that conformity assessment bodies operate at a high level of quality and competence. By establishing rigorous criteria and conducting regular assessments, accreditation bodies provide assurance that these organisations possess the technical expertise, reliable processes, and ethical conduct necessary to deliver accurate and trustworthy results. This helps build confidence among traders, consumers, and regulators in the products and services being traded.

According to James Galloway, JASANZ CEO, supporting the future of global trade is really the essence of what JASANZ is all about.

“JASANZ was started to support trade between Australia and New Zealand and between those two countries and the third countries; so you could say it’s part of our DNA, it’s what we do’” he said.

“[We] essentially provide the framework by which reliable results on conformity assessment, whether it’s processes or whether it’s products, can be generated and they can cross international borders.”

Peter Carter, Churchill Fellow and Director of Solutions and Innovation, GS1 Australia, knows only too well the important role accreditation plays in instilling trust in global trade. Having worked extensively in pacific regional development and with a technical inclination and natural curiosity, Peter helped orchestrate a national research challenge focused on food and agricultural supply chains – now a major Australian government market access mission – through CSIRO’s Data61. Since being accepted as a Churchill Fellow, Peter joined the global supply chain standards body GS1, where he leads cross‐sectoral issues focusing on traceability, sustainability, and cross‐border trade.

For Peter, accreditation is a vital for distinguishing genuine commitments from deceptive practices in global trade in a landscape often plagued by non-compliance and greenwashing of environment, social and governance (ESG) claims.

“Alarming statistics recently reported by Secretary-General Guterres at COP27 revealed that 59% of environmental claims lack evidence, and 42% are false or deceptive. Where 68% of executives admit to greenwashing, it is clear that consumer confidence is at stake. The ACCC in Australia has reported similar observations in its 2022 internet sweep,” he said.

“Accreditation, through its rigorous standards and independent verification processes, empowers consumers to make informed choices and protects them from misleading practices. As 78% of consumers believe that companies should be environmentally responsible, accreditation becomes a beacon of trust, and consumers are willing to pay premiums for confidence in those claims. Through a robust accreditation framework, we can combat non-compliance, greenwashing, and establish a transparent, responsible, and sustainable future.”

As an organisation with over 30 years experience, JASANZ is well-placed to explore initiatives in the Asia Pacific region and beyond that aim to improve trade in the region through sound accreditation processes.

“JASANZ has been around for 30 years now, while a lot of accreditation bodies have been around for less, so we’ve got different levels of maturity and different levels of experience” said James Galloway.

“I think one of the most important things we could see developed in the Asia-Pacific region or the Pacific region generally is a little bit of support for emerging accreditation bodies to help them develop their systems and develop their people so that they can play an active role in trade facilitation into and out of their respective economies.”

One such initiative JASANZ is exploring is to offer internships for emerging and developing accreditation bodies.

According to James, internships will allow “emerging and developing accreditation bodies the opportunity to experience directly how [JASANZ] operate, how we go about business, and how we related to certification bodies and scheme owners. That exposure can give them an experience that they can learn from, and an opportunity to ask questions about how they could do it.”