The Office of Standards and Investment Policy (OSIP) Standards Team leads International Trade Administration (ITA) work on standards-related policy issues including those related to the standards development process, potential barriers to market access in global markets, and capacity building and efforts to promote regulatory cooperation to help ensure that regulations being promulgated by trading partners do not lead to trade barriers, and serves as the liaison to the American National Standards Institute, the coordinator of the U.S. standards system, U.S. Standards Development Organizations, and DOC's National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In working towards ITA's mission, OSIP actively engages private sector stakeholders—including individual companies, industry and trade associations, and standards developing organizations—as well as pertinent U.S. government agencies and foreign regulators.
News and Key Links
Landmark study by ITA on the link between standards, regulations, and trade:
Standards and Regulations: Measuring the Link to Goods Trade finds that 92 percent of U.S. goods exports in 2015 (more than $1.3 trillion) were potentially affected by foreign technical regulations that could have a significant trade impact. Based on notifications under the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) agreement, the report also discusses industries that are frequently subject to regulation.
[ Full report ] [ Infographic summary ]