The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) on Wednesday, May 20, 2020, will join other National Measurement Institutes globally to commemorate World Metrology Day. The theme for this year’s observances is Measurements for global trade.
According to the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) located in France, this theme creates awareness of the important role measurement plays in facilitating fair global trade, ensuring products meet standards and regulations, and satisfying customer quality expectations. More widely, Metrology, the science of measurement, plays a central role in scientific discovery and innovation, industrial manufacturing, and international trade, in improving the quality of life and in protecting the global environment.
Measurements are involved in most trade transactions and to ensure fairness to all parties, they must be able to be considered as “acceptable.” The weight of goods must be determined accurately to ensure fair financial transactions.
For Oil producing countries like Guyana, enormous amounts of money are involved in transactions based on measurement by volume. Measurement errors of a fraction of a percent could lead to a huge difference in the amounts invoiced. Hence, without the capability to perform accurate measurements, trading parties (buyers or sellers) would be disadvantaged. In such scenarios, the state may also lose sizeable tax revenues.
Today, technical regulations and standards are adopted and legislated by governments to protect both producers and consumers at national and international levels. However, if no sound measurement system is in place, these regulations and standards may become technical barriers to trade (TBT) which may lead to increased costs, inhibit the free flow of goods, or require repeated testing.
Even in the non-regulated areas of trade, the need for compatibility of components and systems requires consistency and uniformity in the way we measure. Components are frequently manufactured in one country and then assembled with parts or systems manufactured in another country. Also, there is a growing trend to partially manufacture a component in one country, and complete its manufacture in another. Of course, all of this is only possible if a uniform global system of measurement is in place.
Moreover, a sound measurement system is an essential element in achieving globally accepted calibration and testing results. Essential factors for such a system are traceability to the International System of Units, regulated measurements and measuring instruments (legal metrology), and confidence in testing and measurement results via certification, standardization, accreditation, and calibration (industrial metrology).
Due to the critical role of measurements in compliance and conformity assessment, the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) has created a Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM-MRA) and the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) has created the OIML Certification System (OIML-CS) within which international consistency of measurement and testing can be demonstrated. This satisfies the aim of “measured once, accepted everywhere” on which trade regulators can rely on for accurate measurements made within the established framework.
At the national level, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS), as the National Measurement Institute and custodian of the National Standards, provides critical calibration services to the industry. Also, the GNBS coordinates and spearheads the National Legal Metrology Programme, which ensures that weighing and measuring devices used in trade are accurate and reliable. So far for this year, Inspectors of the GNBS and Weights and Measures Officers from the various Administrative Regions have managed to verify a significant majority of the devices used in trade.
World Metrology Day is an annual celebration of the signature of the Metre Convention on May 20, 1875 by representatives of seventeen nations. The Convention sets the framework for global collaboration in the science of measurement and its industrial, commercial, and societal applications. The original aim of the Metre Convention – the world-wide uniformity of measurement – remains as important today as it was in 1875.
For further information, please contact the GNBS on Tel: 219- 0069 or visit our website: www.gnbsgy.org or like us on Facebook: gnbsgy
