Trade and international standardization
Rue du Parnasse 19 | 1050 Brussels (Room Madrid)
International standards play an important role in avoiding new and dismantling existing non-tariff barriers to trade. They are an essential element in the negotiations of free trade agreements.
International standards from ISO and IEC create a common technical language amongst trading partners and define a uniform set of requirements for products, processes or services. Thus, they open up markets by allowing companies to sell their products and services across multiple markets without the need for adaptations.
Because international standards facilitate trade, European economic players prefer European standards to be identical to ISO and IEC standards wherever possible. Therefore, the European standardization system, building on the work of the national standardization bodies, holds close ties to the international level.
The event will take a closer look at how the unique European standardization system works, how other large economies like China are using standardization as a strategic instrument and why it is getting increasingly difficult to integrate international standards with European ones.
