Strategic Aspects of Codes & Standards

Abstract

The agreement of WTO and TBT has led to an increase in the influence of international codes and standards such as ISO and IEC on world trade. There has been great concern in Japan, as a trading nation, that influence harmful to the national interest may arise through unfairness in the international codes and standards. This may be especially germane to Japan, since the U.S. has always had substantial free market competition and now the U.E. is also moving rapidly in that direction. Therefore, representatives in various fields (government offices, electric utilities, and manufacturing industries, etc.) held summit meetings in the period from 1997 to 1998 to discuss and establish a strategy for international codes and standards.