A proposal for developing a unified proficiency testing program for soil and plant analysis laboratories in the North American region is presented. The proposed North American Proficiency Testing Program (NAPT) will be based on the quarterly submission to participating laboratories of six soil and/or three plant materials for chemical analysis using reference methods of analysis described in the four Regional Soil Work Group publications of NEC‐67, NCR‐13, SERA‐6, and WCC‐103 and methods outlined in Methods Manual for Forest Soil and Plant Analysis, Forestry Canada. Participating laboratories would complete sample analyses for all or any of the specified analytes and provide results to the NAPT program coordinator for statistical evaluation. Upon completion of the quarterly analysis each laboratory will be provided an evaluation of their individual performance on each of the methods listed. Annually the program will provide a report to each participant of the performance of the individual laboratory and that of the agricultural laboratory industry. An extension outreach program to aid participating laboratories in improving the quality of their analytical results will be implemented.