Emirates Authority for Standardization & Metrology (ESMA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) member body to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), has submitted a proposal for a new International Workshop Agreement (IWA) regarding ISO 9001:2008, Quality management systems – Requirements. ESMA has offered to serve as the secretariat for the proposed IWA, which would work to set new guidelines for the use of ISO 9001:2008 by policing organizations worldwide.

ISO 9001:2008 sets down rules for organizational quality management systems that are intended to be applicable to a wide variety of groups and companies. The standard is designed to allow a given organization to consistently and satisfactorily meet the needs of its customers or clients, while also fulfilling any relevant regulatory and statutory mandates.

As the official U.S. member of ISO, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) encourages comments on EMSA’s proposal from all affected U.S. stakeholders. All input received will be compiled and presented to the ANSI ISO Council (AIC) along with a recommended ANSI position on the proposal. Relevant documents will be submitted to ISO before the proposal deadline of September 18, 2012.

Interested parties are invited to review the proposal, and to submit relevant comments to Steven Cornish, ANSI director of international policy (scornish@ansi.org) by the close of business on Wednesday, September 12, 2012.

ANSI has published an explanatory information document outlining the process used to develop U.S. positions on issues and activities under consideration by ISO and IEC. Click here to download the document.