[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 15, Volume 1]
[Revised as of January 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 15CFR286.1]

[Page 403-404]
 
                  TITLE 15--COMMERCE AND FOREIGN TRADE
 
 CHAPTER II--NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY, DEPARTMENT 
                               OF COMMERCE
 
PART 286--NATIONAL VOLUNTARY CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT SYSTEM EVALUATION (NVCASE) PROGRAM--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 286.1  Purpose.

    The purpose of this program is to enable U.S. industry to satisfy 
mandated foreign technical requirements using the results of U.S.-based 
conformity assessment programs that perform technical evaluations 
comparable in their rigor to practices in the receiving country. Under 
this program, the Department of Commerce, acting through the National 
Institute of Standards and Technology, evaluates U.S.-based conformity 
assessment bodies in order to be able to give assurances to a foreign 
government that qualifying bodies meet that government's requirements

[[Page 404]]

and can provide results that are acceptable to that government. The 
program is intended to provide a technically-based U.S. approval process 
for U.S. industry to gain foreign market access; the acceptability of 
conformity assessment results to the relevant foreign government will be 
a matter for agreement between the two governments.