Gordon Gillerman of NIST discusses different scenarios in which companies would have benefited from considering conformity assessment requirements earlier on in the product design phase. Excerpted from the IEEE Standards Education MOOC, “Innovation and Competition: Succeeding through Global Standards” from 2016.
NIST’s Standards Coordination Office is a starting point for identifying market access related technical standards, regulations and conformity assessment procedures.
World Trade Organization Inquiry Point As the official U.S. Inquiry Point for the World Trade Organization (WTO) Technical Barrier to Trade (TBT) Agreement NIST/SCO gathers, aggregates, analyses and distributes details on the over one-thousand trade related regulatory notifications that are issued annually by the WTO’s 164 members. These notifications cover emerging technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures that are essential for global market access.
Through the services of the Inquiry Point U.S. companies, organizations and individuals receive timely information on proposed technical regulations under consideration in all WTO member countries as well as the U.S. (at the federal and state-level).
Companies can reduce market access risks related to foreign technical barriers by keeping informed of regulations and identifying potential technical barriers to trade.
NotifyUS NotifyUS. is a free, web-based email information service that makes it easy for U.S. companies, organizations and individuals to review and comment on proposed foreign technical regulations and conformity assessment requirements. Subscribers receive:
- country-specific and sector-specific email notifications on proposed new or changing regulations
- access to the full-text of a WTO TBT Notification
- guidance on how to comment on the proposed regulation
To subscribe to NotifyUS go to http://www.nist.gov/notifyus/
Standards Information Center (SIC) SCO operates the only government information center devoted to standards and conformity assessment. The Standards Information Center routinely helps users navigate U.S. and international standards by providing:
- Research services on national and global standards, current and proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment requirements.
- Guidance on obtaining standards and specifications, regulations and special publications including information on U.S. military specifications and federal procurement standards.
- Referrals to translation services, relevant publications, conformity assessment procedures, technical experts, and other standards-developing organizations
Contact a SCO information specialist at StandardsInfo@nist.gov when you have a standards question. The Information Center has issued a series of guides detailing product compliance requirements in specific industry sectors. The most recent Guide addresses Electrical and Electronic Equipment. The Guides incorporate hyperlinks to the specific regulations . All the guides are available for free download on the standards.gov website.
You are invited to explore these resources and contact SCO for further information.
