Main Takeaways

  • Voluntary International Standards can provide valuable support to effective policy deployment by helping to share the knowledge of the world’s experts in any given field with interested parties the world over.
  • Standards are essentially voluntary in nature and producers can choose when to use them.
  • Standards shape every aspect of everyday life.
  • Standards are particularly important in the framework of international trade (WTO).
  • The main institution responsible for standardization in a country is the National Standards Body.
  • International organizations responsible for standardization are ISO = International Stadnardisation Organization, IEC = International Electrotechnical Commission, ITU = International Telecommunication Union