Mongolia: will the certificate be recognised where you sell?

The Mongolian Agency for Standardization and Metrology is the national standards body and represents Mongolia at ISO. It is a member of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation. It is not a member of the International Accreditation Forum.

Source: US Department of Commerce — Mongolia: trade standards

Why the difference matters

ILAC covers laboratories: testing and calibration. The IAF covers certification bodies — the organisations that issue ISO 9001, ISO 45001 and ISO/IEC 27001 certificates — and its multilateral recognition arrangement is the mechanism by which a certificate issued in one country is accepted in another without being re-audited.

For a Mongolian business selling only domestically, this is academic. For one supplying an international mining operator, an overseas buyer or a tender abroad, it is the whole question: a certificate whose accreditation chain does not lead back to an IAF signatory may be rejected by the party that asked for it, and that is discovered after the audit has been paid for.

What to do about it

Ask the certification body, before you engage them, which accreditation body accredits them for your standard and your sector, and confirm that body is an IAF MLA signatory. Ask the customer or tender that triggered the requirement whether they name particular bodies. Get both answers in writing.

This is not an argument against certifying in Mongolia. It is an argument for establishing what your certificate has to achieve before choosing who issues it — which is the same advice everywhere, and more consequential here.