Conformity assessment: a gateway to export markets - WTO Explainer

What can a helmet and a medieval castle tell us about conformity assessment — and why does this issue matter to me today?

If you are a cyclist, you probably think you do not have much in common with a medieval castle guard. Yet you share one vital requirement: the need for a helmet that is strong, reliable and fit for purpose.

But how can a cyclist - or a castle guard, for that matter — know that the helmet will do what it is supposed to do?

Imagine that you are shopping online and you find a bike helmet that looks solid and well designed. The webpage has plenty of guarantees about safety. Good, you think, it does its job: it protects me. But then, just as you save it in your virtual basket, you get a pop-up warning: this product cannot be sold in your country.

There could be many reasons for this but two are the most likely.

First, the helmet may not be considered safe in your country. Your government has good reason to set its own quality requirements. Products need to be reliable and fit for purpose – and, above all, safe. This is particularly important for helmets, but also for many more products, such as toys.

Alternatively, the helmet may be safe but the exporter may not have been able to demonstrate this. This could be, for example, because no safety tests were conducted, or the laboratory doing the testing has not been fully recognized by a safety body as competent. In fact, there could be any number of reasons for the product not being available. At the root of it is a lack of trust in the product.

So, how can trust be established when a product comes from another country, or several countries?

In the medieval village, trust was not an issue. If you needed a helmet or a sword, you went to the local blacksmith — someone you literally trusted with your life. You did not ask how the steel was forged, or whether the helmet or blade were made to a particular specification. You trusted the craftsman because you knew him and relied on his reputation. Trust was instant and personal.

Obviously, that model does not work now.

Today, we are unlikely to know who made what we are wearing, even if we do know where it was made. Although we are increasingly concerned about how a product is made, we have little means of being sure about this either. This is because modern supply chains stretch across countries and regions. Products are produced in compliance with various legal systems and in accordance with different cultures and preferences.

The making of a helmet at the turn of the first millennium was a very different operation from today's must-have goods. Take the mobile phone, for example: it contains hundreds of components originating from many different places made by workforces totally unknown to us.

So, trust has to be conveyed differently. It needs to be embedded somehow in the product. This is where conformity assessment comes in.

So, what exactly is conformity assessment?

Conformity assessment refers to procedures used by a manufacturer to demonstrate that a product meets required standards. These procedures may involve product testing, inspection and certification. A helmet may be tested in a laboratory to see how well it absorbs impact and is then certified as meeting a particular quality standard. These steps help to verify its safety.

Product testing and certification do not happen in isolation. They depend on a wider system that ensures that results are accurate, consistent and credible. This is known as "quality infrastructure", the system comprising the organizations and relevant legal framework that ensures products and services are safe and reliable.

Quality infrastructure relies on a number of processes: metrology (ensuring the accuracy and comparability of measurements), standardization of production processes, company accreditation, product testing, certification and market surveillance (measures taken by public authorities to ensure products comply with requirements).

Laboratories need reliable measurements to conduct accurate tests, so that a kilogramme in Jakarta is equivalent to a kilogramme in Kigali. Certification bodies need to have clear procedures and independence. In addition, someone needs to check that the certifying body — a laboratory, for instance — is adequate and that the examiner is competent and impartial. This system of "checking the checker" is typically the function of an accreditation body, which sits at the top of the quality infrastructure hierarchy.

What does all of this mean to me?

We all rely on this invisible system of quality infrastructure every day — when we plug in a kettle, buy a toy or put on that helmet found online.

If the product we wish to buy is not available, it may have been rejected because it was unsafe. In that case, it is not traded and the system worked as intended. But in the situation where the helmet is safe but unable to be traded because the quality infrastructure institutions in the country of manufacturing are inadequate, everyone loses. You, as a consumer, lose because you are unable to purchase the product, and the producer or exporter loses because it is unable to sell the product. In this case, the problem is not the safety of the product but the absence of a reliable system to provide trust in the product.

It is for this reason that strengthening quality infrastructure can be just as important as producing a good-quality product in the first place.

What is the role of the WTO in all of this?

At the WTO, the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) provides a framework for governments to cooperate with each other, learn from one another's experiences and build systems that generate trust in products, both at home and abroad. The latest World Bank Development Report puts a spotlight on the importance of fostering trust in products and services among consumers and regulators alike.  

The TBT Committee has taken action on this topic. In 2024, WTO members developed Guidelines on Conformity Assessment Procedures aimed at supporting regulators in the choice and design of certification and inspection procedures. The guidelines cover topics such as the risk involved in the product or production processes, market surveillance to ensure product compliance with regulations, use of international standards, and how to ensure confidence and acceptance of inspection results. The Guidelines can help members strengthen their capacity to develop their quality infrastructure systems so that there is trust in exported products.

As supply chains become more global and more complex, it is vital to establish trust in how a product is made – just as a medieval village trusted its blacksmith. This can be particularly challenging for developing economies. But when quality infrastructure systems work well, they help to create a world where trust can be transmitted across borders.