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Standards & Technical Barriers to Trade
For more than a century, the U.S. engineering community has been responsible for developing and promulgating quality, safety, technical, and performance standards for the manufacture, operation, and maintenance of a broad range of industry products and services. A highly formalized and effective process has evolved that utilizes private sector, voluntary consensus standards development and review procedures to promulgate standards that meet the test of both the domestic and international marketplaces. Many of these de facto standards have been accepted across the globe as the norm for international commerce and trade.
The Technology Transfer Advancement Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-113) requires federal agencies to use private sector, voluntary consensus standards in the prosecution of their missions and procurement, unless an agency can demonstrate to the Office of Management and Budget that such usage would be inappropriate for a particular application.
Policy Objectives
- The United States Trade Representative and other public and private bodies should promote performance based technical standards and encourage acceptance of all recognized international standards as meeting the intent of the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) agreement. Defacto international standards (i.e., standards accepted and used in the global marketplace) must be afforded the same consideration in government to government trade negotiations as is afforded to standards developed by other standards development bodies, such as the International Organization on Standardization (ISO), the International Electro-Technical Commission (IEC) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
- International standards must meet the tests of fair and open access to the standards development process and a record of success in meeting international market and safety needs - this requires standards development procedures that provide for technical consensus of all affected parties, including engineers, designers, regulators, industry and the public
- AAES supports the Technology Transfer Advancement Act of 1996 and will work to encourage the federal government to expeditiously implement procedures for federal agencies to use voluntary consensus standards. The expected cost savings to the federal agencies, as well as the ability to utilize standards in the performance of their missions that have stood the test of the marketplace, fully justify the implementation of private sector developed standards by the federal government
Society Statements
AAES
ASCE
ASME