WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/TBT/GEN/129 
2 April 2012 
 (12-1718) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
ISO AND IEC COMMENTS ON INDIA'S SUBMISSION
1  
ON INTERNATIONAL STANDARD (IS) SETTING 
 
  
The following information was provided by th e IEC and ISO at the TBT Committee meeting 
of 20-21 March 2012. 
 
_______________ 
  
1. Introductory remarks 
1. Although ISO and IEC have certain comments on th e paper from India, both organizations are 
pleased to support consideration of the issues in the next triennial review.  We believe that the six TBT principles are fundamental pillars on which in ternational standardization should be built, and 
that the ideas for additional principles in the paper ar e very pertinent.  The principles are embodied in 
ISO and IEC work and are part of best standardization practices for both systems, as well as by our 
national members.  
2. Where no comments are made, ISO and IEC basically support the ideas presented in the paper 
by India. 
2. Comments on Independent verification 
3. On the issue of independent verification, ISO and IEC see some practical difficulties to carry 
this out, and we wish to see some clarification a bout the intent.  However, both ISO and IEC believe 
that there is a real need to differentiate betw een standards development organizations (SDOs) that 
adhere to the six TBT principles and those that  do not.  As a contribution to the discussion on 
definition of "international standards", we would lik e to draw attention to the definitions given in 
ISO/IEC Guide 2.
2  
                                                      
1 G/TBT/W/345, submission by India dated 10 November 2011. 
2 Extracts from the ISO/IEC Guide 2:   
1.6.1 International standardization:  standardization in which involvement is open to 
relevant bodies from all countries;  
3.2.1.1 International standard:  standard that is adopted by an international 
standardizing/standards organization and made available to the public;  
4.3.2 International standardizing organization:  standardizing organization whose 
membership is open to the relevant national body from every country. 
 G/TBT/GEN/129 
Page 2  
 
  3. Comments on Development of Int ernational Standards by Regulators 
4. ISO and IEC express their reservations on the appropriateness and feasibility of regulators 
developing voluntary international standard s in accordance with the 6 TBT principles. 
4. Comments on Openness 
5. All WTO Members may become ISO members through a single, representative national 
standards body (NSB). ISO members have a duty to encourage participation and representation from 
all stakeholders with an interest in specific subj ects and more generally in standardization issues in 
their country. All WTO Members can become IE C members through National Committees (NCs), 
representing all stakeholders in their country and th ere can only be one NC per country. Participation 
is open at all stages of standards development to ISO and IEC members who express the wish to 
participate.   
6. The level of participation, i.e. either full pa rticipation or as observer/associate, in standards 
development work is decided by ISO or IEC memb ers themselves. They decide in accordance with 
their technical capability to contribute to standard ization work but also depending on the importance 
of the standard in their economies. It is neither e ffective nor efficient to have all developing countries 
participate in all standard-setting activities at the inte rnational level. Individuals also contribute in ISO 
work through national mirror committees (NMC) set up by the NSB. In IEC this work is through 
national mirror committees set up by the NCs.  
7. ISO undertakes awareness and capacity-buildin g activities to increase knowledge and hence 
prepare countries, including LDCs, to participate bett er. It should be pointed out that LDCs may also 
contribute to the development of ISO standards throug h their participation in the work of regional and 
sub-regional standards organizations, whose members are also members of ISO.  
8. The LDCs participating in IEC free programme  for developing countries – the Affiliate 
Country Programme - may also participate in  the development of IEC standards through a 
commenting right in the work of 10 selected techni cal fields.  Use of IT tools to enable wider 
participation by developing countries including LDCs is also being made available by the 
organizations.   
5. Comments on Impartiality and Consensus 
9. ISO and IEC use a double level of consensus wh en developing international standards. The 
first is at the working draft stage involving technical  experts, where no formal voting process is used, 
but rather a consensus of experts is established and all positions are reconciled, as far as possible. At 
the second level, countries are called upon to consider dr aft standards; at this stage, voting is carried 
out with national stakeholders having the oppor tunity to consider and influence the vote and 
comments submitted by the country member of ISO. This is also a further element of openness. Currently, the approval criterion for ISO members a nd IEC NCs is 75 per cent in favour of all those 
voting in respective memberships.  We would not see a need to raise this to 90 per cent agreement as 
is proposed. Current ISO and IEC rules on voting have wo rked well, with very rare cases of appeals to 
such decisions.   
10. Both ISO and IEC have Global Relevance  policies which require that standards take into 
account variations in climate, geography and infrastructure throughout the world.  G/TBT/GEN/129 
 Page 3 
 
 
  6. Comments on Effectiveness and Relevance 
11. Case studies carried out by ISO on the economic benefits of standards at the enterprise and 
sectorial level, using a methodology formulated by ISO, confirms tremendous benefits to companies 
and sectors, similar to findings from studies carried ou t by various national standards organizations.   
12. Effectiveness and relevance is also assessed at the project proposal stages in ISO and IEC, 
where full justification of the proposed standards ac tivity is presented for review and approval by ISO 
and IEC members.  ISO now includes a further ser ies of questions on market relevance of this 
proposed work, before initiating standards development.   
13. A direct causal link between standards and trade is difficult to measure, given many factors 
contributing to effects. It is not appropriate or feasible to place such a systematic and definitive 
obligation on International SDOs, as proposed by In dia – every standard, sector and national/regional 
implementation is different.  Instead, WTO Members who wish to carry out such assessments may do so on a targeted basis and this could be done in consultation with ISO or IEC, and the relevant 
national member(s).  
7. Comments on Development Dimensions - Stakeholder Consultations  
14. ISO developed and published a gui dance document in 2011 entitled " Guidance for national 
standards bodies - Engaging stakeholders and building consensus " and a course is being prepared 
for training ISO members and their stakeholders. Both ISO and IEC believe that involvement of stakeholders is essential in the process of deve loping international standards and we support its 
inclusion in the family of TBT principles. 
8. Comments on Development Dimensions - Gu idelines for Transposition to National 
Standards 
15. ISO and IEC published a guide in 2005 entitl ed "Regional or National Adoption of 
International Standards and other International Deliverables —Part 1:Adoption of International 
Standards". ISO member bodies and correspondent members may adopt ISO standards or ISO/IEC standards as national standards.  Similarly, IEC National Committees  - Full and Associate Members -  
may adopt IEC and ISO/IEC standards as national st andards. In order to support developing countries 
which are not full members or associate members of IEC, the latter created two special categories of 
Affiliate and Affiliate Plus Countries, who ar e allowed to respectively adopt 200 and 400 IEC 
standards of their choice as national standards. 
 
__________