Geneva, Switzerland, held on 29 October 2008

As the world becomes increasingly global and trade of significant value and volume regularly crosses boundaries, market surveillance becomes an imperative for safeguarding stakeholders’ interests and ensuring the correct implementation of ISO standards.

Liberalization and globalization of trade have brought market surveillance into the international context. Regulators want to ensure that their population's health or safety is not endangered. "Business to business" relations need to happen in a climate of trust and confidence. And consumers want to be sure that what they are buying responds to their expectations in terms of quality or environmental impact for instance. Regulatory provisions, conformity assessment and market surveillance are important elements that need to be combined to ensure a fair and trustful climate for world trade.

Market surveillance can increase confidence in certification, accreditation and conformity assessment oversight processes, as well as protect the interests of Governments, business communities and consumers.

The aims of the workshop on Market Surveillance were:

• to identify the areas of MS which could be addressed by ISO at the international level;
• to determine if there is sufficient consensus on the potential need for international level of work on MS and if so what it should include as its scope;
• to determine if there is a need for generic standardized base document for MS processes or other ISO deliverables; and
• to determine how ISO can contribute to MS activities in the future.