World-wide trade needs world-wide accepted measurement certificates

Two major trends are at present governing the economic scene world-wide. These are, first, the 'globalization' of the national economies and of trade, and, secondly, the 'regionalization' of the markets. Parallel to this development, there is an increasing trend towards internationalization in the area of metrology, too. An important contribution to the removal of barriers to trade can be made by harmonizing legal regulations, written standards, accreditation and metrology on an international level. The paper describes as a main objective today's efforts of the metrology community to contribute with their work to a free world trade.