Accreditation is a mechanism to build trust and facilitate trade. IFOAM, the predecessor of IOAS became involved in accreditation in the late 1980s because there was a lack of trust between certification bodies and their clients. To build confidence among producers and trust among traders, there was a need for oversight of Certification or Control Bodies (CBs) working in different countries. In this way, accreditation is the highest level of the conformity assessment. 

As the trade in eco-labelled goods is amongst the fastest growing sectors and is taking place on an international level, accreditation is demanded by most regulators and private standard systems as a way of bringing assurance and order to markets and consumers. 

Certification or control bodies are required to demonstrate competence by undergoing an assessment by accreditation bodies like IOAS. Once accreditation is achieved, the CB is listed as approved by the regulator or scheme owner, which confirms to producers and traders that the certification process is performed according to agreed rules and that, in turn, the certified products comply with the agreed standard. Trade in these goods follows from this trust. 

On June 16, 2016, IOAS became a signatory of the Multilateral Recognition Arrangement for Product Certification operated by Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC), a regional group of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF).

The ultimate objective of both APAC and IAF is the creation of a global system that grants international recognition of certification or registration of management systems, products, services, personnel and other programmes of conformity assessment.