The International Trade Centre (ITC), a technical agency of the United Nations and World Trade Organization, has recently launched its Standards Map website (www.standardsmap.org): an interactive tool to review and analyse private standards.

ITC is working in close relationship with over 60 Private Sustainability Standards (such as Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, the Forest Stewardship Council...) to present their systems in the Standards Map web-tool.

Standards Map provides access to comprehensive information on these private standards and aims to increase opportunities for sustainable production and trade. Information and data included in Standards Map covers the standards and codes’ requirements, enforcement processes, audit and certification/verification mechanisms. These standards collectively operate in more than 200 countries and certify or verify over 80 different product groups.

Additional standards will be continually added to the Standards Map web-tool.  The website is also fully accessible in Spanish and French.

Access to Standards Map is granted for free to all organizations based in developing countries, and is granted to organizations based in developed countries against payment of an annual license fee of 900 USD.

GTW Associates welcomes your comments and  feedback on the  relevance and utility of the ITC  service to market needs.