International Standards, Conformity Assessment, and U.S. Trade Policy

In March 1995 the STEP Board issued a report, Standards, Conformity Assessment, and Trade: Into the 21st Century, prepared by an expert panel chaired by Gary Hufbauer, Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Economics. The report was requested by Congress in the Technology Preeminence Act of 1991 to assess the use of technical standards and product testing and certification requirements as a trade barrier and/or export promotion measure and to advise on the U.S. government and private sector roles in setting domestic and international requirements. The report concludes that the largely private and voluntary U.S. standards development system generally functions satisfactorily. On the other hand, the U.S. conformity assessment system, with duplicative and conflicting federal, state, and private sector requirements, is excessively burdensome and complex. Moreover, the lack of agreement among national governments to recognize national conformity assessment mechanisms impedes international trade.

The report recommends an effort, led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), to phase out federal procurement and regulatory conformity assessment activities and to eliminate duplication in state and local criteria for accrediting testing laboratories and product certifiers. Further, it recommends a U.S. strategy for eliminating discriminatory foreign standards and conformity assessment mechanisms in compliance with the WTO. The report was the subject of the annual meeting of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and has been covered extensively in the trade press. Several of its recommendations were incorporated in the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (P.L. 104-113) increasing government reliance on voluntary standards.