Standards development takes place in technical committees which are representative of all stakeholders. The NSB can establish and manage these committees but does not necessarily have to do so; this can also be left to other Standards Development Organisations (SDOs) that are recognised as such by the NSB.
When developing standards it is important to:
- Meeting the WTO Six Principles and
- Applying the WTO Code of Good Practice
The standards development process applied by ISO and IEC (based on the ISO/IEC Directives) represent a good model that National Standards Bodies can follow and apply at the national level.
NSBs that are ISO members (162, with a substantial overlap with the WTO membership) are already practicing this process at the international level.
