COORDIATION AND COOPERATION WITH OTHER BODIES
1. Other ISO Technical Committees;
TC 8 is the committee for the maritime industry sector. It is imperative that work undertaken by functional TC's be closely monitored for potential impact on the maritime industry.
2. Liaisons with regional bodies;
A formal relationship exists between CEN and ISO through the Vienna Agreement. For the maritime industry sector a close relationship exists between ISO/TC8 (Ships and Marine Technology) and CEN 300 (Shipbuilding).
The need exists to establish similar relationships with other major regional bodies such as COPANT (Pan American Standards Commission) and PASC (the Pacific Area Standards Congress).
A. COPANT has representation from 23 national standards bodies (from Canada to Argentina). COPANT was established as the Pan-American Standards Committee (C PANT) in 1949. In 1964, the organization changed its name to COPANT. A significant role of COPANT is promoting and consolidating the National Standards Bodies in many of their member countries. Its process of regional standardization is founded on the use of international standards. The relationships between ISO, IEC and COPANT are therefore of the utmost importance. In 1994, cooperation agreements were established between COPANT and each of the two international standards organizations. COPANT has agreed to spread and promote use of the international standards and ISO and IEC shall facilitate participation of COPANT in the process of elaboration of international standards. As of 1997, 1653 COPANT Pan American Standards had been approved. The focus of their current standards development that are of interest to ISO/TC8 are in the fields of： quality assurance, fire protection, harmonization of standards, environment and terminology. Membership in COPANT is shown in Appendix II.
