Garments Standards

ISO
ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 157 countries, on the basis of one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system.
ISO is a non-governmental organization: its members are not, as is the case in the United Nations system, delegations of national governments. Nevertheless, ISO occupies a special position between the public and private sectors. This is because, on the one hand, many of its member institutes are part of the governmental structure of their countries, or are mandated by their government. On the other hand, other members have their roots uniquely in the private sector, having been set up by national partnerships of industry associations.
Therefore, ISO is able to act as a bridging organization in which a consensus can be reached on solutions that meet both the requirements of business and the broader needs of society, such as the needs of stakeholder groups like consumers and users.
Because "International Organization for Standardization" would have different acronyms in different languages ("IOS" in English, "OIN" in French for Organization international de normalization), its founders decided to give it also a short, all-purpose name. They chose "ISO", derived from the Greek isos, meaning "equal". Whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of the organization's name is always ISO.
ISO’s orientation is guided by a Strategic Plan approved for a five-year period by the ISO members. The ISO members, ultimate representatives of ISO for their own countries, are divided in three categories: member bodies (full members), correspondent members and subscriber members. Only member bodies have the right to vote.
The General Assembly, which meets annually, consists of a meeting of the Principal Officers of ISO and delegates nominated by the member bodies. Correspondent members and subscriber members may attend as observers. The Principal Officers include the President who is a prominent figure in standardization or in business, the Vice President (policy), the Vice President (technical management), the Treasurer, and the Secretary-General. The General Assembly’s agenda includes, inter alia, actions related to the ISO annual report, the Strategic Plan with financial implications, and the Treasurer’s annual financial status report on the ISO Central Secretariat.
The ISO Statutes stipulate that, while the General Assembly is the ultimate authority of the Organization, most of the governance functions of ISO are performed by the Council in accordance with the policy laid down by the member bodies. The Council meets twice a year and its membership is rotated to ensure that it is representative of ISO's membership. All member bodies are eligible for appointment/election to the Council. Under the Council, there are a number of policy development committees to provide strategic guidance for the standards’ development work on cross-sectoral aspects. They are: CASCO (conformity assessment); COPOLCO (consumer policy), and DEVCO (developing country matters). The policy development committees are open to all member bodies and correspondent members.
The Technical Management Board (TMB) reports to Council, and is itself responsible for the overall management of the technical work, including for a number of strategic and technical advisory groups. Member bodies are eligible for appointment/election to the TMB in accordance with a set of criteria established by the Council.
Operations are managed by the Secretary-General (chief executive officer) who reports to the Council. The Secretary-General is based at the ISO Central Secretariat in Geneva (Switzerland) with a compact staff which provides administrative and technical support to the ISO members, coordinates the decentralized standards' development programme, and publishes the output. The ISO Central Secretariat also acts as the secretariat of the governing bodies, policy development committees and their subsidiary bodies.
Website: http://www.iso.org

ASTM International (ASTM)

is an international standards developing organization that develops and publishes voluntary technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services.
ASTM predates other standards organizations such as BSI (1901), DIN (1917) and AFNOR (1926), but differs from these in that it is not a national standards body, that role being taken in the USA by ANSI. However, ASTM has a dominant role among standards developers in the USA, and claims to be the world's largest developer of standards. Using a consensus process, ASTM supports thousands of volunteer technical committees, which draw their members from around the world and collectively develop and maintain more than 12,000 standards. The Annual Book of ASTM Standards consists of 77 volumes.
The standards produced by ASTM International fall into four categories:
the Standard Specification, that defines the requirements to be satisfied by subject of the standard.
the Standard Test Method, that defines the way a test is performed. The result of the test may be used to assess compliance with a Specification.
the Standard Practice, that defines a sequence of operations that, unlike a test, does not produce a result.
the Terminology Standard, that provides agreed definitions of terms used in the other standards.
The quality of the standard test methods is such that they are frequently used world-wide, even in places where ASTM specifications are not used.

Association for the Assessment of Environmentally Friendly Textiles
Since the early the 1990s, the Oeko-Tex Test Association has been involved in varying concepts for the textile supply chain aimed at the stipulation of human-ecological requirements for textile products, and, through this the development of solutions for improvements in production ecology. The tests for harmful substances in textiles specified in the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 were first introduced in 1992 and these met with great success. As a logical progression of this ecological concept, the “Oeko-Tex International – Association for the Assessment of Environmentally Friendly Textiles” introduced the Oeko-Tex Standard 1000 for production ecology in 1995.The Oeko-Tex Standard 100plus has made it possible to create consumer awareness of achievements in production as well as human ecology. The Oeko-Tex Standard 100plus builds on the level of awareness of the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 label


ITC
Since 1964, the International Trade Centre has helped the business sectors of developing and transition economies to develop exports. The goal is to help these countries to achieve sustainable human development through exports, with an emphasis on competitiveness. Our daily contact with business executives and export strategy-makers over the course of four decades has given us a unique perspective and experience. ITC are known as a practical agency that has embraced reform, encourages partnerships and fosters innovation.
Globalization has brought trade to everyone’s backyard. Yet only a handful of developing countries have managed to seize the potential of trade for development. In today’s world, our mandate is more relevant than ever. Today, trade is recognized as an avenue for development, and many organizations support trade as a part of their work. Yet ITC remains the only international organization focused solely on trade development for developing and transition economies.
ITC remain specialized, focused, flexible and client-oriented. To achieve this mandate, ITC work in partnership with national, regional and international bodies around the world. Our ultimate clients are export‑oriented firms, especially small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries. Our aim is to deliver relevant, world-class trade development services, in partnership with others, so that we serve as a catalyst to help countries create better jobs, and raise income, for their people.
ITC shares the social development goals of the United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Bretton Woods institutions (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) and, more generally, of the international development community. ITC contributes to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, specifically to the goals relating to fostering global partnership for development, reducing poverty, promoting gender equality and ensuring environmental sustainability. We advise business on making the most of an open trading system; attend to the specific trade development needs of least developed countries (LDCs); help countries apply the benefits of new technologies; provide support to women entrepreneurs; and promote environmentally-friendly export initiatives.
ITC’s trade development approach reflects its emphasis on being a practical agency. We are a technical cooperation organization that builds national capacity through trade-related technical assistance programmes. This approach has been acknowledged in WTO’s Doha Ministerial Declaration and in the Monterrey Consensus (the outcome of the International Conference on Financing for Development).
Complementarity
ITC is the joint technical cooperation agency of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and WTO for business aspects of trade development. The three Geneva-based organizations play a complementary role in trade development, and cooperation between our organizations is close:
While UNCTAD and WTO work principally with governments, ITC works with the business community. How does this work in practice? Let us take, as an example, technical assistance to developing countries for trade negotiations. UNCTAD trains negotiators and helps governments develop and harmonize negotiating positions. WTO helps countries prepare to be WTO members, disseminates its Agreements and assists in legal compliance with the Agreements. ITC clarifies the business implications of multilateral trade agreements and assists business in understanding, shaping and benefiting from trade rules.


WTO
the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only international organization dealing with the global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.
The WTO’s overriding objective is to help trade flow smoothly, freely, fairly and predictably.
It does this by:
Administering trade agreements
Acting as a forum for trade negotiations
Settling trade disputes
Reviewing national trade policies
Assisting developing countries in trade policy issues, through technical assistance and training programmes
Cooperating with other international organizations
Structure
The WTO has nearly 150 members, accounting for over 97% of world trade. Around 30 others are negotiating membership.
Decisions are made by the entire membership. This is typically by consensus. A majority vote is also possible but it has never been used in the WTO, and was extremely rare under the WTO’s predecessor, GATT. The WTO’s agreements have been ratified in all members’ parliaments.


ANAB
The ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board is the U.S. accreditation body for management systems. ANAB accredits certification bodies (CBs) for ISO 9001 quality management systems (QMS) and ISO 14001 environmental management systems (EMS), as well as a number of industry-specific requirements.ANAB is a member of the International Accreditation Forum and a signatory of the IAF multilateral cooperative arrangements (MLAs) for QMS and EMS. Through the IAF MLAs and the Multilateral Cooperative Accreditation Arrangement, ANAB cooperates with other accreditation bodies around the world to provide value to its accredited CBs and their clients, ensuring that accredited certificates are recognized nationally and internationally. The global conformity assessment system ensures confidence and reduces risk for customers engaging in trade worldwide.
SAI (Social Accountability International)
SAI is an international non-profit human rights organization dedicated to the ethical treatment of workers around the world. SAI’s social standard, called SA8000, functions as a highly effective and expedient system for delivering improved social performance to businesses and their supply chain facilities. The SA8000 solution is designed to ensure compliance with the highest ethical sourcing standards by integrating management tools that serve the needs of workers and businesses alike.


OHSAS 18000
OHSAS 18000 is an international occupational health and safety management system specification. It comprises two parts, 18001 and 18002 and embraces a number of other publications.
For the record, the following other documents, amongst others, were used in the creation process:
BS8800:1996 Guide to occupational health and safety management systems
DNV Standard for Certification of Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems(OHSMS):1997
Technical Report NPR 5001: 1997 Guide to an occupational health and safety management system
Draft LRQA SMS 8800 Health & safety management systems assessment criteria
SGS & ISMOL ISA 2000:1997 Requirements for Safety and Health Management Systems
BVQI SafetyCert: Occupational Safety and Health Management Standard
Draft AS/NZ 4801 Occupational health and safety management systems Specification with guidance for use
Draft BSI PAS 088 Occupational health and safety management systems
UNE 81900 series of pre-standards on the Prevention of occupational risks
Draft NSAI SR 320 Recommendation for an Occupational Health and Safety (OH and S) Management System
OHSAS 18001 is an Occupation Health and Safety Assessment Series for health and safety management systems. It is intended to help an organizations to control occupational health and safety risks. It was devloped in response to widespread demand for a recognized standard against which to be certified and assessed.

BISFA (Bureau International pour la Standardization des Fibers Artificielles)

This international association of man-made fiber producers was founded in 1928 under the French name of Bureau International pour la Standardization des Fibers Artificielles, hence the abbreviation BISFA. The head office of the association is Avenue E. Van Nieuwenhuyse, 4 B-1160 Brussels Tel. (00322) 676 74 55 / fax (00322) 676 74 54.

Objectives
BISFA establishes terminology of man-made fibers for the continuous improvement of intercompany, customer and consumer communications. BISFA aims to establish technical rules for fibers and yarns for delivery conditions which have to be applied for each type of man-made fiber and which are mandatory for all members of the association. Therefore BISFA establishes internationally agreed procedures and test methods for different categories of man-made fibers and sets general rules for settling of disputes between seller and buyer of man-made fibers.
BISFA provides an international voice for the man-made fibre industry in these matters and promotes the adoption of its methods and terminology by standardization organizations such as CEN and ISO and by the European Commission responsible for textile labeling and the customs authorities.
Membership of the association is open to any producer of man-made fibers. Its more than 60 members are located all over Europe; and some members are from outside Europe (e.g. in Brazil). Each producer who is a member, or applies for membership, undertakes to abide by and support the decisions of BISFA. The organization is financed by contributions from members in proportion to their production.
Structure and Operation:
The General Assembly of BISFA members elects the President and endorses the decisions taken by the Standards for Fibers & Textiles Committee. This Committee defines the general objectives, sets an annual work programme and controls the progress of the working groups active on specific, limited objectives (such as revising an existing methods booklet or developing new methods). The Committee exchanges information on national standardization activities. The secretariat in Brussels provides the infrastructure. The working language of BISFA is English.
This Standardization Committee closely collaborates with the equivalent bodies of the Comité International de la Rayonne et des Fibers Synthétiques (C.I.R.F.S.) with its office at the same location.