Conference

June 22, 2017

Launch of the China Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) National Platform, Qingdao, China on June 27 2017

  The Government of China, with the support of UN Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS), will launch its National Multi-Stakeholders Platform on Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) on June 27, 2017. This event is taking place as the Sub-Forum 1 of the 2017 Qingdao Forum on International Standards. The ceremony will be led by  Mr. Tian Shihong, Administrator,  Standardization Administration of China (SAC), Mr. Liu Yuhua, Director-General, International Trade,  Mininstry of Commerce (MOFCOM), Mr. Ji Zhengkun, President, China Association of Standardization (CAS) and

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May 18, 2017

Launch of the Brazilian Voluntary Sustainability Standards National Platform, supported by UNFSS, May 31, 2017

On May 31 and June 1 2017, Brazil will launch its National VSS platform in Brazilia and Sao Paulo. This initiative is led by theNational Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology (Inmetro) and supported by UNFSS, a joint initiative of five UN Agencies (FAO, ITC, UNCTAD, UNEP and UNIDO). The two days discussions first in the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) in Brazilia and then in the Federation of Industries of State of São Paulo (FIESP) in São Paolo will established a

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March 15, 2016

Launch of the Indian National Platform on Private Sustainable Standards, 18 March 2016, New Delhi, India.

  On 18 March the Government of India launched a national platform on private sustainability standards. The platform was supported by UNFSS, a joint initiative of five UN Agencies (FAO, ITC, UNCTAD, UNEP and UNIDO). The Quality Council of India (QCI) and UNFSS have agreed to collaborate on setting up a National Platform on PSS in India. The Quality Council of India (QCI) is the national quality facilitation and accreditation body, set up by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government

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November 14, 2014

UNFSS at IFOAM Organic World Congress, Istanbul

  The UNFSS Working Group on enhancing interoperability of VSS focuses on organic agriculture as a sector that provides leading edge examples of innovation and impact of standards and technical regulations towards achieving environmental, social and economic goals. Organic agriculture and trade, which has come to be regulated by governments, now crucially depends on collaboration between those governments, the private sector and civil society. At the IFOAM Organic World Congress, held from 13-15 October 2014 in Istanbul and drawing

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October 24, 2014

UNFSS at the WTO Public Forum 2014

The UNFSS participated in a session of the WTO Public Forum 2014 under the topic “Voluntary Sustainability Standards: Building Equity in and Access to Sustainable Markets” on 3 October 2014 at the WTO headquarters, Geneva. The session was hosted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the State of Sustainability Initiatives (SSI). Panelists included representatives from the UNFSS, the Sustainable Commodity Assistance Network (SCAN), Smallholders’ Access to Markets for Certified Sustainable

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UNFSS in CII/IISD Conference – New Delhi, India

UNFSS addresses CII/IISD Conference on Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Its Impact on India and Developing Nations in New Delhi, India on 12 August 2014. Ulrich Hoffmann, Coordinator of the UNFSS, was invited by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development to make a presentation on the importance of private sustainability standards for market access, their role as governance tool in international supply chains and their contribution to achieving specific sustainable

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June 25, 2014

UNFSS at ICCO’s World Cocoa Conference, Amsterdam

The UNFSS was presented at ICCO’s World Cocoa Conference in Amsterdam on June, 11th, 2014. This global conference for the cocoa sector brings together the governments from the cocoa producing and consuming countries, as well as a wide variety of stakeholders (over 1,200 registered attendees). The UNFSS presentation focused on the joint activities the UNFSS and ICCO had organized over the past year to address the issue of Voluntary Sustainability Standards in this important sector, which included

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May 14, 2014

UNFSS participation in the Standards Conclave – New Delhi, India

Standards Conclave – Role of Standards in International Trade: Challenges, Opportunities & Issues. 16-17 April, 2014, Hotel Shangri-La, New Delhi Arpit Bhutani atttended the event as an observer for the UN Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS). The meeting was a joint initiative of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), partnering with the Bureau of Indian Standards, the Centre for WTO Studies and the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) and drawing on some

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unfss update december 2012
December 21, 2012

UNFSS Update December 2012

The Forum has received strong interest, and we have continued to present the UNFSS in a number of events.  Most recently at : the International Conference on Sustainable Business and Consumption in Bonn, Nov. 27-28 (http://www.suscon.net/), UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Board Geneva, Sept. 24th (http://unctad.org/en/pages/MeetingDetails.aspx?meetingid=69), the OECD Joint Working Group on Trade and Environment Experts (Paris, Dec. 10-11th), the WTO TBT Committee (Geneva, Nov. 11-13th), and the GIZ cocoa supply chain technical board meeting in (Amsterdam, Nov. 28-29th, giz.de/themen/en/33272.htm) We are also organizing a series of

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