Derived measurement standards of reduced uncertainty - A contradiction?

 If the value of a derived measurement standard is assigned by comparison with a reference standard of the same quantity, the uncertainty is increased by the additional uncertainty on the difference measurement. This basic fact has lead to the general belief that the uncertainty of derived standards is always larger than that of the reference standards. However, if the value of a derived standard is assigned by comparison with several independent reference standards using an appropriate average, the increase of uncertainty due to the uncertainty on difference measurement may be counterbalanced by the the well-known decrease of uncertainty through averaging. The gain of accuracy made possible by this mechanism is restricted to second-generation standards. Further gain through iteration is prevented by correlation between standards derived from the same set of reference standards. As a consequence, the concept of metrological hierarchy levels, relating to traceability chains, becomes questionable for traceability networks.