International Technical Standards: An Overview

The growing globalization of industry is stimulating a growing emphasis on international standards. Standards are important because they provide significant economic benefit. They are also costly and much of the benefit is broad-based, i.e. it does not accrue preferentially to those who incur the cost. Finally, there is a highly disaggregated international standards system and at least two very different basic philosophies as to how standard systems should operate. The effect of the individual cost-benefit analysis by organizations may produce a hybrid system that produces both global standards in which each country participates in the development as well as less costly technical and consortium standards.