Government Standards
At the national level, Government standards, which are often called technical regulations, are developed and promulgated by Federal, State, and local agencies to address health, environment or safety concerns. Technical regulations differentiate from the rest, as they are by law mandatory.
National Standards
Also at the national level, some National standards which are voluntary standards can be developed by national standards bodies as a consensus based alternatives or complements to environmental or social regulation e.g. eco-labelling schemes.
International Standards
At the international level, International standards are developed and disseminated by international governmental and non-governmental standards development organizations, such as ISO, IEC, ITU or Codex Alimentarius and are based on international consensus. These international standards are voluntary standards. At the international, regional or sub-regional level, harmonization of standards may be done through regional standards bodies or sub-regional standards organizations.
Private Standards
At the international, national and/or local level there are private standards, also known as industry or buyers standards.