WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/GEN/101 
2 July 2010 
 (10-3624) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
ASSISTANCE TO ISO DEVELOPING COUNTRY MEMBERS 
 
Statement by Rob Steele, ISO Secretary-General
 
  
 The following statement was provided by ISO
 (the International Organization for 
Standardization) to the TBT Committee meeting of 23-24 June 2010.    
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1. ISO is one of the largest developers of consen sus-based, voluntary international standards in a 
wide array of technical fields. It has a current membership of 163 Members each from a different country. Collectively the countries represented in IS O are responsible for 98% of global GNI and our 
members are mostly national standards bodies (NSB).   Three-quarters of the ISO Members are from 
developing countries, which is one of the reasons for the special consideration that ISO has always 
devoted to this group.  
2. I am thus pleased to present the ISO brochur e describing the assistance provided to increase 
developing countries’ participation in internationa l standards development and to establish the proper 
awareness and capacity within these countries to u se international standards in all spheres of 
economic activity. ISO technical assistance contributes to the objectives of the TBT and is fully in 
line with the findings of the 5th Triennial review  of the Agreement on TBT, in which the Committee 
stresses the importance of continuing to explore ways and means of enhancing WTO Members' awareness of, and participation in, the work of international standardizing bodies.  
3. Whilst ISO has been implementing technical assi stance programmes targeted at its members 
and their stakeholders from developing countries si nce the early 1980s, the need to structure this 
assistance with clear objectives resu lted in the formulation of the ISO Action Plan for developing 
countries 2005-2010, which is in turn aligned with the ISO Strategic Plan 2005-2010.  ISO is 
currently formulating the next ISO Action plan for developing countries 2011-2015  and has just 
completed a series of five consultation workshops inviting all
 its 123 Members from developing 
countries to provide inputs into the new five-year Action plan . Eighty-five countries (69% of the 
developing country membership), of which 27 were  represented by the respective CEO of the NSB, 
thus participated actively to develop an action plan  that aims at responding to their special needs. 
4. I would like to stress the point that our developing country members play a major role in 
identifying needs and directing the whole process of ISO technical assistance.  By this I mean that 
they formulate the 5-year  Action plan ; they monitor its implementati on through the annual meeting of 
the ISO Committee on developing  country matters (DEVCO);  they fine-tune their needs for 
assistance on an annual basis by clearly identifying ne w areas for assistance or  areas where refinement 
is needed by completing a technical assistance request  form; and they take steps to ensure that the 
technical assistance provided by ISO produces a multip lier effect at the national level.  Finally, the 
loop is closed by ISO by an im pact assessment of all its techni cal assistance activities on an annual 
basis to bring about continual improvement. G/TBT/GEN/101 
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  5. ISO technical assistance may thus be viewed as a permanent project covering 
120+ developing countries, with continuous a lignment with developing country needs in 
standardization training and awareness and a major revi ew to ensure all this activity is aligned in the 
ISO five-year Action plans.  
6. Through ISO’s Members, the ISO developing  country programmes are therefore aligned 
closely to the real needs of the country both at th e technical infrastructure level and with the sector 
and industry specific needs in that country.  It is clear that identifying developing country needs through the direct involvement and participation of ISO Members who live and work in the country 
that a far better result is achieved than bringing in overseas experts who may try to impose a solution 
that is simply not sustainable. 
7. ISO also measures the relevance of its deve lopment programmes through a questionnaire for 
all participants and a follow up questionnaire six m onths after the training to both participants and 
their employer to check that the programme was rele vant and effective in meeting the specific needs 
previously identified. 
8. ISO's approach is also to bring participants together from within a region as, in many cases, 
countries in a region have significant trade with  each other, there may be similar levels of 
development of a technical infrastructure and th ere are common issues that can be addressed and 
experiences that can be shared.  Building trust and networks through these regional workshops and 
events is a pragmatic way of raising awareness and providing another level of shared expertise 
amongst countries in a region. 
9. Strengthening NSBs and their key stakehol ders through these programmes provides the 
pathway through which wider quality infrastructures are established under othe r national or regional 
projects undertaken by other organizations; the NS B is the linchpin in many developing countries 
with regard to the knowledge base connected to  standards, metrology, conformity assessment, 
accreditation, etc. – thus, strengthening NSBs is key to  the effectiveness of the technical infrastructure 
underpinning the application of the TBT Agreem ent.  ISO technical assistance thus builds the 
foundation for wider projects that assist countri es to increase their global trade and introduce 
international standards to support the health and safety needs of their citizens. 
10. Much of the ISO technical assistance would not have been possible without the financial 
support provided by the donors listed in the brochure.   We are currently discussing with them to 
support the next ISO Action plan for developing countries.  By the same token, the deployment of ISO technical assistance across so many players is  only made possible due to the work of the 
Development and Training Services (DEVT), a nine -member unit that ISO has established within the 
Central Secretariat and whose costs are largely met by ISO.  
11. In addition to this significant pool of human re sources, ISO has also decided, in 2011, to 
devote additional financial resources from its own budge t to assist developing countries.  This is a 
strong signal to donors and our other partners of ISO’s commitment and recognition to the importance 
of enhancing developing  countries’ participation in the in ternational standardization process. 
12. Of course the demand for services is significantly  in excess of current financial resources and 
additional financial assistance would allow ISO to ap ply our programmes in an even more effective 
manner, for example increasing on-line training and increasing programmes in existing and new 
subject and geographic areas. 
13. As an observer to the WTO TBT Committee since its inception, and also previously involved 
within the GATT, ISO has been directly aware of and attentive to the various issues discussed with 
regard to standards, technical re gulations and conformity assessment.   G/TBT/GEN/101 
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  14. We express our appreciation of this long relati onship and the benefits it has brought and take 
this opportunity to say that if there is a demand from the Committee, we would be ready to consider 
making our services available to the Committee to deploy technical assistance activities under the 
Agreement. 
 
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