Joining nations 1947-1990

58

JOINING NATIO S

contacts had been facilitated by the election of Mr Granjon as interim President of the UITA for the year 1983/84 and his membership of its Executive Council for a further two years. These initiatives were to develop rapidly during 1984/ 85 when the IIW made another change of direction. Arising out of discussions in the Working Group 'Liaisons with developing countries and non– member countries', the Executive Council proposed the creation of a class of 'associate-member' to make possible the participation of bodies ineligible for full membership in non-member countries. Since such countries were mostly situated in S E Asia, Africa and S America, it was further proposed to set up regional structures which would enable neighbouring countries to collaborate and to have joint representation on IIW working units. Such regional structures would also facilitate the holding of periodic regional conferences, the first of which the Australian delegation proposed should be held in Australia in I 988. The Governing Council was also informed at the 1985 Assembly in Strasbourg that conversations with UNIDO had devel– oped to a point where the possibility of its participation in the organisation of such a conference was envisaged. All these proposals were accepted in principle, thus enabling work to proceed on the necessary amendments to the Constitution and the organisation of the regional conference. During the year the financial position improved sufficiently to render unnecessary the collection of the 20% supplement approved in I 984 while, for the evaluation of subscriptions, it was agreed that, for the nex1: three years, each member country would pay the same percentage of the total income required as it had paid in I 98 5; it was hoped that before l 988 a revised assessment using factors other than steel consumption could be proposed. Two other matters of far-reaching technical importance were dis– cussed in Strasbourg. Firstly, it was reported that the ISO had adopted a resolution which would make possible the adoption as ISO standards of documents produced by international bodies with stan– dardising activities and the IIW had applied to be accepted as such a body. Secondly, resolutions were passed after a joint meeting of Commissions V, X, XIII and XV announcing a collaborative pro– gramme for the preparation of a provisional standard on the appli– cation of the fitness for purpose concept to the significance of weld imperfections. A technical innovation also distinguished the i985 Assembly - a stand organised by the Study Group Scientific and Technical