HALAL ACCREDITATION WILL STREAMLINE TRADE

Participating in the opening ceremony of the International Halal Accreditation Forum (IHAF 2013) hosted by the Turkish Accreditation Agency (TURKAK), an affiliated organization of the Ministry for EU Affairs, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis stated that halal accreditation is one of the important issues on the agenda of both the Islamic countries and the world.

Indicating that the International Halal Accreditation Forum organized in Haliç Congress Center is one of the first steps of the target “non-stop trade through a unique standard, a certificate and a well-known accreditation for a halal life”, Bagis said: “I believe this forum will be a milestone to activate certain mechanisms which will streamline the trade among the Islamic countries.

Bagis noted that an Accreditation Committee was set up on the advice of TURKAK in April 2012 under the Standardization and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC) in order to form an accreditation network to be recognized on the international platform and the Committee designated TURKAK as its Presidency. He also added:

“We should decide what to do next all together. I believe it is important that we rely on this phenomenon, one of the most fundamental orders, rules and traditions of our religion and we act together. We should prevent multiple overlapping authorization, uncontrolled and irregular organization, failure to follow halal procedures and lack of technical knowledge in the certification process. We should form a new network which may be called as ‘Halal Schengen’ or ‘Helalgen’ whereby halal products can be controlled and make use of this huge commercial potential as a whole ”.