One Size Fits all or Tailor-Made? Building Appropriate Certification
Systems for Geographical Indications in Southeast Asia
tional certification bodies are in place,
it is important to encourage ongoing ef-
forts toward regional cooperation in the
area of certification. As multiple accred-
itations are costly and time-consuming,
certification bodies tend to develop
partnerships based on a strategy of spe-
cialization in either a geographic loca-
tion or an accreditation. The Certifica-
tion Alliance, a collaborative platform
for regional certification, is an interest-
ing example of such cooperation. Based
on the premises that local certification
may not be viable in countries where
there are only a small number of opera-
tors, Certification Alliance offers an in-
ternationally accredited inspection and
certification service to local operators
as well as collaboration between mem-
bers on information-sharing, learning
and capacity-building in inspection
and certification. On this platform, col-
laboration among different certification
bodies allows each member to benefit
from a menu of certifications. Local in-
spectors accompany experts from oth-
er member organizations during their
inspections, and learn from the expe-
rience. In 2008, the Lao Certification
Body joined this platform along with
eight other Asian organic certification
bodies.
it may be wiser not to further com-
plicate matters by adding mandatory
coordination of controls between the
authorities in charge of accreditation
and certification and those in charge of
geographical indications (intellectual
property department or office) to avoid
extra costs of co-management.
1.7 In the end, are GIs really
equivalent to standards?
S
tandards imply a certain level of
codification. In this respect, GIs
are different from other stan-
dards: each GI specification is a unique
standard, and inspectors need to tru-
ly understand the history and specific
quality/uniqueness of the GI product.
Furthermore, the uniqueness of the GI
product may make it difficult to trans-
late all its properties in the technical
specifications without ending up with
a very complicated document that is
both unverifiable and unmanageable.
For example, the experience of Kam-
pot Pepper shows that having too many
points to control (42 control points) is
overly difficult and inefficient. The con-
trol points should be classified between
major and minor points and the senso-
rial analysis should not be undermined:
Finally, while the European sys- more importance should be given to the
tem designates a GI-competent author- sensorial analysis and tasting panels as
ity to supervise the control scheme for GIs give added value to typicity and or-
GIs (INAO in France), such supervision ganoleptic quality.
Another specificity of GIs is their
of the control scheme by the GI nation-
al competent authority is questionable collective nature. Each GI is a standard
in the four countries concerned here. built on the practices of a group of pro-
As they are currently learning the fun- ducers/processors located in a specific
damental principles of internationally place that created a product with a rep-
recognized certification procedures, utation. The group of producers/pro-
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