Here, we summarise how two of the most important International Standards Organisations, ISO and IEC, develop standards:
- ISO’s members are national standards bodies, with one per country; and EC’s members are national committees, with one per country.
- Both organisations:
- Use the same rules for conducting standards development work;
- Have published a joint guidance on adopting and referencing ISO and IEC standards to support public policy;
- Have jointly carried out training for developing countries;
- Speak in one voice on many matters related to standards and conformity assessment at the WTO/TBT Committee meetings, where both organisations are observer members; and
- Have special consideration for developing country members.
For both the ISO and IEC, the process of developing a standard follows a series of key steps, each serving a specific function.
ISO and IEC standards are developed by groups of experts within 250 technical committees (TC) or Sub Committees (SC).
TCs are made up of representatives of industry, NGOs, governments and other stakeholders put forward by ISO’s members (NSBs) or IEC’s members (NCs).
Each TC deals with a different subject. For example there are TCs focusing on screw threads, shipping technology, food products and many, many more.