A number of mechanisms are used to facilitate the acceptance of conformity assessment data in more than one country. In some cases, a conformity assessment body in one country will buy or establish a subsidiary within the geographical boundaries of a foreign country. Conformity assessment data can then be exchanged and accepted between the parent body and its subsidiary. In other cases, an agreement can be established between two or more organizations located in different countries to accept each other's conformity assessment data or the agreement may be based on the acceptance of conformity assessment marks or certificates of conformity. An example of the former type of mutual recognition arrangement is the IEC's System for Conformity Testing to Standards for Safety of Electrical Products (the IECEE scheme), which is designed to promote the reciprocal recognition of test results among the participating countries and to simplify the certification of electrical products at the national level. An example of the latter is ISO's/IEC's Quality System Assessment Recognition Program (QSAR) which is currently being developed in cooperation with and will be operated by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF).

That program is designed to encourage mutual recognition of ISO 9000 registration certificates by participating national accreditation bodies based on audits of each other's operations. The IAF peer reviews are expected to begin in March 1997 with the assessment of the ANSI-RAB NAP Program. In most mutual recognition schemes, such as the IECEE Scheme, parties to the agreement agree to accept each other's test results or reports rather than each other's certification marks. Test results or reports prepared in one participating country are accepted in other participating countries for the purpose of obtaining certification or government marketing approval by the importing country.

Mutual acceptance of data may also result from the establishment of bilateral or multilateral agreements between governmental authorities or between a governmental authority and a private sector body (31). These agreements require each party to accept conformity assessment results from entities, which are recognized or accredited by the other party or parties. However, these agreements are usually very difficult to reach for many reasons -- especially legal restrictions imposed on the extent to which agencies can transfer their authority for approving products to foreign governments or other entities. For that reason, most mutual recognition agreements between governments involve the mutual acceptance of test data, not certifications or approvals; each government retains the authority for final approval under such agreements.