The international accreditation oligarchy - ILAC, EA, APLAC and all the rest. What it is going to mean for North-American calibration laboratories.

Since the late 1970s, modeled on protocol developed in Australasia, an international accreditation infrastructure has been built. The practices promoted by the members of this international community are beginning to impact calibration in North America. This paper discusses strategies and options and identifies for North American calibration practitioners, areas where transitional difficulties are likely to occur for them. The authors have been involved, internationally, in calibration over the past three decades and one of them attended the 1998 ILAC and APLAC General Assemblies. They believe the opinions they offer are of importance to all North American calibration laboratories.