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 Documents
Report of the 9th Meeting — April,
2008
Round Trials — 2008 Participants
Round Trials — 2008
Membership — April,
2008 (12K PDF)
Report of the 8th Meeting — October,
2007 (65K PDF)
The Expert Panel on Commercial Standardization of Instrument Testing
of Cotton (CSITC) was created
after the 62nd Plenary Meeting of the ICAC in 2003. Creation of
the panel occurred after several years of
discussion. During the 61st Plenary Meeting in Cairo in 2002, representatives
of producers and
consumers agreed that the cotton industry needs to move forward
in the adoption of instrument based
quality evaluation systems, and during the 62nd Plenary Meeting
in Gdansk representatives of merchants
and spinners agreed that an international agreement on the use
of instrument based quality evaluation
systems is needed to standardize quality test results. In the Statement
of the 62nd Plenary Meeting, the
Committee instructed the Secretariat to form an Expert Panel on
Instrument Testing of Cotton to explore
how best to establish an International Agreement on Instrument
Based Cotton Classing to ensure that
test results are uniform in all classing laboratories.
Membership
Membership in the Expert Panel reflects the geographic
diversity of cotton production, consumption and
trade and includes representatives of all segments of the industry,
including researchers, shippers,
producers, spinners and controllers.
Terms of Reference
The instruction to the Expert Panel from the
62nd Plenary Meeting is to explore how best to establish an
International Agreement on Instrument Based Cotton Classing to
ensure that test results are uniform, and
the Panel will determine how best this instruction can be accomplished.
As
it proceeds with its work, the Panel may formulate recommendations
on how countries can improve
their instrument based testing facilities. The Panel may develop
recommendations to encourage
increased international trade in cotton based on instrument based
classification systems, and the Panel
may formulate recommendations on how best to encourage more countries
to adopt instrument based
classification systems. The Panel may discuss alternative instruments
and ways the international
community can encourage adoption of the latest technology available.
Schedule
of Work and Procedures
The Expert Panel on Commercial Standardization
of Instrument Testing of Cotton conducts its business
primarily via E-mail. The Expert Panel meets together twice each
year, at the ICAC plenary meeting and
at one interim location. Consistent with established procedure
within the ICAC, decisions of the Expert
Panel are made by consensus. All costs associated with participation
in the work of the Expert Panel are
the responsibility of Panel members.
The Expert Panel on CSITC will
be meeting in June 2005 in Memphis adjacent to the Universal
Standards
Conference. Working with the Fiber Institute in Bremen and USDA,
the Expert Panel hopes to achieve the first two
of the seven steps indicated above [1) definition of specifications
for cotton trading, 2) definition of international test
rules] by that meeting. Step 5) USDA can complete definition
and provision of calibration standards on an asneeded
basis. The Expert Panel will make another report to the 64th
ICAC Plenary Meeting in Liverpool in
September 2005, and there may be progress on steps 6) specification
of commercial control limits for trading and 7)
the establishment of arbitration procedures, by that time. Therefore,
the world cotton industry might realistically
hope that the procedures for an international instrument testing
system can be developed within a year.
However, steps three and
four, [3) implementation of test rules, 4) certification of testing
laboratories] will
likely take between one and two years to allow time for discussion
and consultation among the
association members. International acceptance and implementation
will likely require many more years
as countries and regions come into agreement with the certification
system according to their own
schedules. One might realistically expect that more than half
of world cotton production will be instrument
tested at the producer level as part of an international testing
system within five years, and 100%
participation in an international testing system might be achieved
within 15 years.
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