AsureQuality – Withdrawal of CB Accreditation
As outlined in our initial statement on April 14, 2023, IOAS, AsureQuality’s accreditation body, suspended their accreditation for farm group scope for all RAF Textile Exchange standards (RWS, RMS, and RAS) effective March 29, 2023. However, on May 22, 2023, AsureQuality was withdrawn from all Textile Exchange scopes, i.e. both individual farm and farm group scopes (please see the statement on the IOAS website). AsureQuality’s certified clients must now seek certification services from and transfer their certification services to another accredited certification body no later than August 20, 2023 to maintain certification as all scope certificates issued by AsureQuality will be considered withdrawn after that date.
Transaction certificates previously issued by AsureQuality are still considered valid – unless otherwise notified by AsureQuality or Textile Exchange. To authenticate a transaction certificate issued by AsureQuality, please see the Textile Exchange transaction certificate portal.
Please note that throughout the phase-out period, AsureQuality is not permitted to issue transaction certificates, new scope certificates, nor extensions for existing scope certificates, effective May 22, 2023.
The Withdrawal of Certification Body Licensing procedure (ASR-112-v2.0), section D details the requirements for certification bodies to communicate to their certification clients directly regarding how this withdrawal will impact their certification services.
If you are a certified client of AsureQuality, you should soon receive their notification, but below are some potential next steps and resources to assist you with the process:
- Review this page of certification bodies licensed to certify against the relevant Textile Exchange standard(s) in your region and immediately contact them for quotes to become newly certified by them. In some cases, a simplified transfer audit may be possible.
- Inform the chosen succeeding certification body of the circumstance and provide them a copy of this communication.
- When an organization transfers between certification bodies (from the “preceding certification body” to the “succeeding certification body”, including when the transfer occurs at recertification), the succeeding certification body may issue transaction certificates for shipments from the time when the organization was certified with the preceding certification body, provided that all of the conditions of calibration# 229 are met. Please contact your certification body for more information.
While Textile Exchange is disappointed by this situation and the conditions that will impact site certifications, we thank AsureQuality for their support of our standards over the past several years and wish them all the best in their future endeavors.
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