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International Standards - ISO Activities
Background
As the role of tariffs decreases in the global marketplace, the role of standards has been increasing. In the global marketplace, standards are now the passports to market entry, the means by which producers are able to satisfy ranges of regulatory requirements. Accordingly, to be successful, it is increasingly incumbent on U.S. manufacturers to actively participate in, and influence development of, those standards which will increasingly control their products entry to market.
Global codes and standards related to timber are influenced by a number of factors including the diverse history of geographically based traditional approaches to design and construction in timber. Many of these go back hundreds of years and involve such simple differences as units of measure, traditionally accepted member sizes and support spacing, etc.
Imperatives for Action
- The WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) aims to reduce impediments to trade resulting from differences between national regulations and standards. This agreement specifically prescribes the use of international standards as a deterrent to trade barriers. The Agreement states that, “Where international standards exist or their completion is imminent, signatory standardizing bodies shall use them, or the relevant parts of them, as a basis for standards they develop.” This obligates member governments to use standards developed in recognized international fora as the basis for their technical regulations.
Consistent with this, many developing countries that are in the process of revamping their national timber standards (e.g. China) have expressed a willingness to incorporate elements from similar standards developed by other countries (e.g. U.S., Canada and Japan). However, their official government policy is such that the only standards that are actually recognized for referencing are ISO standards.
This suggests that to maximize the opportunity for U.S. manufacturers, industry will need to maintain a dual strategy of both influencing country-specific standards as well as continuing to engage, to the maximum extent possible, International Standards Organization (ISO) standards activities.
Industry strategy to address development of timber-related or timber-impacting standards in global fora is two-pronged. The first prong mandates that industry continue its attempts to influence standards development in specific countries of interest. For those countries developing national standards, this effort is designed to insure that such regulations not result in barriers to entry of U.S. products. The second prong recognizes that standards that impact U.S. products continue to be developed in multinational forums, the principal of which is ISO.
The U.S. is engaged in the relevant ISO Technical Committees that develop standards affecting wood products. These technical committees are:
ISO/TC 165 Timber Structures
ISO/TC 98 Bases for Design of Structures
ISO/TC 92 Fire Safety
ISO/TC 59 Building Construction
ISO/TC 89 Wood-Based Panels
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