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International Standards - Global Building Code Activities

At present, AF&PA's International Standards program is active with regard to Building Code issues in Japan, Korea, and China.

Japan
Japan builds more wooden homes outside of North America than any other country and will continue to be one of the largest export markets for U.S. wood products.

As part of the long-term strategy to expand the market for wood-frame construction, AF&PA has been involved in pushing for equity in building code regulations through participation as U.S. technical experts on various committees such as the Building Experts Committee (BEC) and the JAS Technical Committee (JTC). 

Korea
For the last 8 to 10 years, wooden houses have been built in Korea without any standards or regulations. As such, the need for a Korean standard on wood-frame construction was identified and a group selected by the Ministry of Construction and Transportation (MOCT) has been tasked with developing a design standard for wood-frame construction.

It is interesting to note that approximately 90 percent of domestic wood consumption in Korea is fulfilled by import from foreign countries. For this reason, the new Design Standard has been written to permit structural wood products graded and stamped by authorized agencies of foreign countries.

AF&PA is working with a group of Korean industry representatives to incorporate a new draft building code for multi-story, multi-family wood-frame construction into a new Wood Design Standard.

China
Even though it is recognized that interest in structural wood products for the housing market is a longer-term opportunity, capturing a small percentage of the Chinese housing market can translate into larger numbers for the wood products industry due to the size of the market.

Efforts to promote wood-frame construction in China have largely been focused on multi-story housing given the population density.

AF&PA has been working cooperatively with other industry associations and its Canadian counterparts to develop a wood-frame construction chapter for consideration by the Chinese Ministry of Construction.