Panama meet for ISO groups

June 6, 2005

6 June 2005

Panama meet for ISO groups

The following article is excerpted from the 6 June 2005 edition of “The Journal of Commerce”. The Canadian representative to the ISO is the Standards Council of Canada, http://www.scc.ca.

Two International Organization for Standards working groups that are drafting standards for international supply-chain security will meet July 11-15 in Panama City, Panama.

The two meetings will be back-to-back to give interested parties the opportunity to attend both, according to Nancy Williams, chair of the working group considering overall ISO security standards, known as ISO 28000. That group will meet July 14-15, preceded July 11-13 by the working group for supply-chain security best practices, or ISO 28001.

Williams said the Panama meeting will be the second for the best practices working group, and the third for the general standards group. The groups previously met separately in Delft, the Netherlands, and Madrid.

The ISO working groups have met since the first of the year on a fast track to develop security standards, but they drew criticism for excluding carrier and shipper groups in the U.S. and Europe that would be affected by the standards.

Williams said the working groups want to be as open as possible, but remain within the constraints of the ISO's rules, which limit direct participation to nations' standards-setting bodies,….

U.S. companies … may offer comments for the Panama City meeting through the American National Standards Institute.

By the end of 2005, both groups plan to publish "publicly available standards" on which anyone may comment before the ISO officially adopts final standards.

The trade community may download a draft of the 28001 best practices working paper from www.securesea.saic.com, under the N987 heading.


Topic(s): 
Canadian Economy & Politics
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