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TRADE POLICY


“We would like to see the UK government ensuring that international standards are strategically referenced in trade agreements in order to play their full role in reducing trade friction,” said Frank Faraday, Senior Trade Policy Adviser at BSI. “International standards are the engine room of global trade, ensuring trust and a common language between trading partners. In many cases, they are a much more signifi cant factor in reducing global trade friction than tariffs and quotas,” he added.


At the heart of the international standards system are bodies such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). “The defi ning characteristics of international standards are that they are voluntary and that they are developed through global consensus achieved through national delegations representing the national position on behalf of all


stakeholders – BSI fulfi ls this role for the UK,” said Frank. “This ensures that all those


in the UK who have a stake in an


international standard have a guaranteed voice and the greatest possible infl uence in its development.”


BSI is already a leading member of ISO and IEC, making a signifi cant contribution to their work both at the technical level and within governance functions. These organizations provide an effective global forum to develop consensus-based


THE VALUE OF STANDARDS


The use of standards in the UK enables an additional


£6.1bn 40%


in exports annually and nearly of UK productivity growth.


WTO PRINCIPLES FOR INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS CLICK TO READ


international standards to remove technical


barriers to trade between trading partners.


Key to understanding the importance of international


standards to trade is the TBT Agreement that came into force in 1995 when the WTO was created. Through the TBT Agreement, WTO members commit themselves to basing national technical regulations on international standards where they exist (see ‘WTO principles for international standards’ pop up).


However, due to of a lack of global consensus, the TBT Agreement does not specify which organizations produce these international standards. A set of principles was agreed on by the TBT Committee in 2000 which should be met in order for a standard to be considered an international standard, such as inclusiveness, transparency, relevance and coherence. For BSI, as important as these principles


are, they are insuffi cient by themselves. Its view is a standard can only be considered to be a true international standard if


Frank Faraday


it has been developed in international standardizing bodies, such as ISO and IEC; such bodies operate on the basis of consensus and provide a guaranteed means for each national member to shape and infl uence the standard through the national delegation.


It is the double consensus within the national delegation and between national delegations that provides the legitimacy of an international standard in BSI’s view. “That view is shared by many of our current and potential trading partners, but not all of them,” said Frank.


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