Volume 4 Edition 1 

January 1999: The standards year in review:

Standards Matters at WTO

International Standards Policy
US National Standards Policy
Regional Standards Policy

Conformity Assessment Policy

Intellectual Property Rights and Standards

Moving on, Moving In
Can this be true?
Did you ever Wonder?
Words to Live by.

Standards Matters at WTO

The US and the European Union are escalating a trade fight over the US contention that the European Union is unfairly blocking US companies from selling bananas from Latin America to Europe. Peter L. Sher, US Special Trade ambassador said, "We have US companies which over the course of 100 years developed this business of exporting Latin American bananas…The EU decided they wanted to take that business away and give it to European Countries. Announcing those European products which will face new 100% tariffs, US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said recently, "The United States is exercising its rights under WTO to impose penalties on the 15-nation European Union".

In turn the European Union declares that the US market is fraught with violations of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to trade. In their November 1998 report on US Trade barriers, the European Union states "A particular problem in the US is the relatively low level of use, or even awareness, of standards set by international standardizing bodies. All parties to the TBT Agreement are committed to the wider use of these standards; but although a significant number of US standards are claimed to be "technically equivalent" to international ones, and some are indeed widely used internationally, very few international standards are directly adopted. Some US standards are in direct contradiction to them" In a November 25 Request for Consultations to the WTO by the European Communities regarding US measures affecting Textiles and Apparel products, the EU also asserts that the US is violating the TBT principal of National Treatment, "Finally, the European Communities are of the view that the US requirements on country of origin marking correspond to a technical regulation as defined in Annex I to the TBT Agreement and, as applied since the changes to the US rules of origin, do not guarantee to imported Community products a treatment equivalent to the one granted to domestic products. This difference in treatment is not compatible with Article III of GATT 1994 and Article 2 of the TBT Agreement."

The Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade completed the first Triennial review of the Operation and implementation of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade in November 1997. The TBT emphasizes the role of International Standards in Article 2.5 where it is stated that whenever a technical regulation "is in accordance with relevant international standards, it shall be rebuttably presumed not to create an unnecessary obstacle to international trade." The TBT Committee agreed to consider the appropriateness of developing a better understanding of the meaning of an international standard as defined in Annex 1 to the TBT. On November 19, the TBT committee met with representatives of International Standards Organizations. The ongoing work within the TBT Committee will have dramatic impact defining the types of standards and the organizations which create them that would enjoy the presumption of not creating a technical barrier.

The United States this Spring submitted two documents TRANSPARENCY IN INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT and DRAFT U.S. PROPOSAL FOR A DECISION responding to the Triennial Review finding of certain difficulties encountered in relation to the use of international standards. The US proposed that, "the Committee could articulate a set of principles and procedures it considered desirable for international bodies which develop standards."

In their contribution to the discussion, the European Union proposed, "the key criterion for a body to be accepted as producing international standards, which will thus be privileged under the WTO, is that of international impartiality; that is, all countries with an interest in standardization must have access to the work, and international control over the results, without either discrimination or privilege as to the nationality of the participants.

International Standards Policy

ISO approved new procedures to be used at the discretion of those ISO technical committees for which speed of standards development is a paramount consideration. The two new types "Publicly Available Specifications" and "Technical Specifications" will be normative documents representing reduced levels of transparency and consensus, but which nevertheless seem to respond to market requirements in at least some sectors. These streamlined procedures recognize that in the elaboration of an ISO International Standard, three different levels of consensus are achieved. The first level comprises a consensus between individual technical experts in an ISO working group, during what is called the preparatory stage in the ISO process. Once this consensus has been attained, the next part of the ISO process involves the formulation of national consensus positions and their negotiation in the ISO technical committee or subcommittee until an international consensus is reached. Finally, this consensus is then exposed to the full ISO membership, and, in many countries, national public reviews are carried out to ensure that by the time the final text of an International Standard is agreed, any party potentially interested in or affected by a standard has had the opportunity to contribute and make their comments.

The Global Standards Conference Steering Committee met in Geneva on September 28, 1998 to review progress on key Global Information Society standards issues. This meeting, hosted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and chaired by Mr. Bruno Lamborghini (Olivetti Italy), was a follow-on to the Global Standards Conference held in Brussels in October 1997. Based on reports on Electronic Commerce, Services to the Public, Individual Use, Communications Infrastructure Interoperability, and related standards activities, including reports from ISO, IEC, ITU and ISO/IEC JTC 1, the steering committee concluded that the Global Standards Conference had achieved its objectives, and that the initiative need not continue but rather the Steering Committee members could focus on standards and related matters within the context of the private sector-led, voluntary standards process.

Leaders of the GSC in Geneva September 30, 1998 (L to R) T. Irmer (ITU); T. Raeburn (IEC); L. Eicher (ISO); B. Lamborghini (Olivetti, Chair); V. Laopodis (CEC).

Giacomo Elias, President Elect of ISO met with leaders of the US voluntary consensus Standards community to better understand how ISO may continue its relevance to US national interests. In a November 4 meeting organized by ANSI and the National Institute of Standards, Elias stated, It is the main goal of my Presidency to obtain the widest possible agreement on international standards, by increasing the participation of business concerns and the collaboration with organizations of the United Nations, such as UNCTAD, UNIDO and WIPO and with other Organizations such as WTO and ITC. The first thing we shall do is to make certain that the developed countries understand and agree on a common definition of international standards. I'm convinced that to make available to enterprises and consumers an "auditorium" in which to have an open dialogue with the international standards bodies, such as ISO, IEC and ITU, to be able to actively work on the strategies for the advancement of international standardization, will be of great use. The objective should be to promote and implement actions aimed at motivating ever more countries, particularly the developing ones, to adopt and use harmonized standards. I have made a proposal to the ISO Council for the creation a Foundation, or some other body, that can be used as an instrument and auditorium. The Members and the administrators of the Foundation can be manufacturers and suppliers of goods and services, international associations for the promotion of trade, consumer associations and everyone else interested in the global market and willing to promote the development of society.

Mark Ryland, Director of Standards at Microsoft discusses International Standards issues with ISO President-Elect Giacomo Elias

The IEC’s first Industry Technical Agreement (ITA), is aimed at defining the specifications for standardized multimedia platforms that will allow end-users to access a range of multimedia services via a single platform. The Open Platform Initiative for Multimedia Access (OPIMA), a consortium currently comprising more than 40 companies and organizations and which is open to all interested parties, agreed in September to use the IEC’s ITA mechanism to bring this specification to market. This first ITA is scheduled for completion by September 1999. . The IEC’s ITA is a new product, which delivers industry specifications for fast-moving technology sectors in months, rather than international standards which serve the traditional industry sectors but which can take years to develop. ITAs are designed to enable industry to launch new products or start production once the ITA specifications have been agreed. ITAs are different from international standards in that they do not go through the same consensus procedure and are not produced within the committee structure used for developing standards. ITAs were launched by the IEC in response to calls from industry for a new and rapid means of achieving de facto industry specifications.

Roni Amit (then deputy Secretary General IEC, now Secretary General) and GTW Associates President George Willingmyre discuss the IEC’s new ITA process

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) agreed on procedures to allow ITU-T Study Groups to develop technical specifications for Internet Protocol (IP) based networks in cooperation with the Internet Society/Internet Engineering Task Force (ISOC/IETF). The ISOC Vice President of Standards Scott Bradner was instrumental in shaping these guidelines and in ensuring that they covered the key aspects of the collaboration. "With the rapid convergence of technologies in the telecommunications world it is vital that organizations involved in these technologies develop productive ways of working together", he said. "These procedures will ensure that these two organizations will complement each other’s strengths whenever possible", he added. The new procedures will ensure that the strengths of both the ITU-T and ISOC/IETF are brought to bear in a complementary way on IP-based network standardization, said Robert Brett, Vice-Chairman of TSAG. "As telecommunication network operators, manufacturers and software/application providers reconsider their business directions in the IP area, ISOC/IETF and ITU-T are well positioned to collaborate through these procedures to effectively address standards needed on an urgent basis in response to a growing market demand", he said at the conclusion of the meeting".

US National Standards Policy

The United States needs an effective national standards strategy ... but we just don't have that strategy now...according to Director of NIST Ray Kammer at ANSI Board of Directors Meeting March 13, 1998  and in testimony April 28 before the House Subcommittee on Technology NIST and ANSI convened a standards "summit" meeting to discuss these issues September 23. Among the conclusions of the event summarized by ANSI President Mazza and NIST Director Kammer in the The conference report Toward a National Standards Strategy may be found were the following:

Mr. Mazza stated that whether we like it or not, the market is becoming global. Companies that ignore this fact do so at their own peril. We must therefore make thoughtful choices about harmonizing our standards. We need a process in place to develop a national standards strategy that will define our options and potential actions, protecting the gains that the United States has already made in public health, safety and the environment. Our safety standards differ from those of other nations, yet in many respects these standards are comparable, so we must find ways to harmonize and establish equivalency, perhaps with a transition phase. Mazza stressed that the clearest message that came across today was that standardization is not the same in all sectors. Whatever our standards strategy, we will have to allow for diverse approaches in different sectors. We also need to consider improvements in government and private sector cooperation and communication, not only in the United States, but also around the world. It is not enough to talk to each other more effectively; we have to help the rest of the world understand that we all need to cooperate.

Mr. Kammer reported hearing a number of things during the day in the realm of the possible, probably worthy of further attention and, perhaps, ultimately an element of the strategy. In particular, there was the repeated thought that we should reach out to other countries facing similar circumstances regarding their relationships with ISO, IEC, and ITU. Another repeated thought was the need to relieve the financial pressure on ANSI so that we might improve our international representation. Kammer believes that the notion of re-engineering – of joining into a dialogue with ISO, IEC, and ITU to see what might be achieved – is very powerful. Issues to be discussed with those bodies might include intellectual property; revenue; the unique preference for CEN/CENELEC standards currently shown by ISO and IEC; the issue of presumption of conformity; and the voting structure itself. We need to hear further about these topics from other people. Kammer concluded by noting that conformity assessment is another important issue that remains to be treated, perhaps in a manner similar to the way standardization was discussed at this session.

Conference leaders at the September 23 summit: (Evangelos Vardakas, EU; Sergio Mazza, ANSI; Belinda Collins. NIST; Robert Hermann, ANSI Chairman; Henry Line, Amp; Oliver Smoot, ITIC; Didier Herbert, EU; Ray Kammer, NIST

Congress recognized the key roles of IETF and W3C in preparing standards necessary to implement the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In the Report accompanying the final US legislation implementing the WIPO Copyright Treaty, the legislators note: Subsection (b) provides for a limitation on liability with respect to certain acts of `system caching' when certain standards are used. Paragraphs (5) and (6) of this subsection refer to industry standard communications protocols and technologies that are only now in the initial stages of development and deployment. The conferees expect that the Internet industry standards setting organizations, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force and the World Wide Web Consortium, will act promptly and without delay to establish these protocols so that subsection (b) can operate as intended.

Regional Standards Policy

The Brazilian Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality INMETRO), and the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) hosted 21 delegates from the United States to promote further collaborative activities in metrology, standards and conformity assessment and to facilitate trade. The October workshop in Rio consisted of formal presentations by Brazilian experts followed by questions and answers. Topics included:

Overview: Brazil, Trade, and Globalization

          The National System of Metrology

Standards Development, Organization and Processes

The Industrial Quality Assistance and Promotion Program

                     The Conformity Assessment Structure

  Brazil’s Metrology System; fundamental and legal metrology

The Consumer Protection and Awareness Movement

A Visit to the INMETRO Laboratory Campus in Xerem

                      Brazil’s International Activities

                      Brazil’s activities in MERCOSUL

                      Perspectives from the Confederation of Small Industries

THE US delegation to the Brazilian Workshop on Standards and Conformity Assessment, with Brazilian hosts at INMETRO’s laboratory

The Fourth TransAtlantic Business Dialog (TABD) Conference in Charlotte, NC November 5-7 provided a platform for European and US Chief Executives to highlight the role of standards in facilitating or impeding US-EU trade. The Conference communiquŽ noted that government to government cooperation between EU and U.S. on regulatory matters suffers from systematic deficiencies. TABD urges governments to come to grips with:

"The Brink of Trade War Syndrome" has too often appeared in transatlantic regulatory activities, meaning that agreements have been reached only under the pressure of an immediate crisis. There is also "The Hostage Syndrome" meaning that unrelated sectors are kept hostage for each other when governments negotiate umbrella agreements. The TABD process has led to improvements in this respect. TABD expects further improvements to be made through Guidelines on Regulatory Cooperation.

Continuing implementation of the eighth Long-term Standardization Plan and the amended Industrial Standardization law passed by the Diet in 1997, the Criteria Certification Study Group of the Japan Industrial Structure Council and the Product Safety Committee of the Consumer Economy Council invited comments on its proposal how to realize rational and efficient safety regulations. The key elements of the proposal were to keep the direct involvement of the government to the minimum necessary and shift as much as possible government certification to the self-confirmation concept; accept private companies to perform certification and inspections, Shift to increasing use of "performance specification" (specifications related to the performance that a product is expected to achieve in respect of safety, etc.) promote acceptance of data originated in foreign countries and to classify regulated sectors.

On October 7 the United States Government commented to Japan regarding deregulation, competition policy, transparency and other government practices. The Document states: Meaningful and timely deregulation is a critical complement to effective macroeconomic policies to restore domestic demand-led growth to the Japanese economy. As the Japanese Government removes and relaxes regulations, it is essential that industry associations and other public interest corporations (ko-eki hojin) and other private sector organizations (collectively referred to as "private organizations") are not allowed to substitute private sector regulations (so-called "min-min kisei") in place of government regulations. Private regulations, including rules on market entry and business operations, approvals, standards, qualifications, inspections, examinations and certification systems (collectively referred to as "private regulations"), can adversely affect business activities. The United States notes the concerns of various Japanese entities with regard to private regulations, as for example, in the 1996 and 1997 Reports of the Administrative Reform Council (Gyosai Kaikaku Iinkai), and the July 1998 JFTC Report on its Survey of the Standards and certifications of Public Interest Corporations. The United States urges the Japanese Government to undertake the following measures: A. Delegation by Governmental Entities. The Japanese Government should prohibit government entities from delegating governmental or public policy functions, such as product certifications or approvals, to organizations unless such delegation is expressly provided by a statute. B. Transparency To increase the transparency of private regulations, the Japanese Government should 1. Direct each private organization, which is authorized by the GOJ, to make widely available to the public, by the end of JFY 1998, the following information on its regulations: (1) A description of the regulation, the industry or enterprises subject to it, and any penalties for not complying with it; and(2) The authority or basis for each private regulation, that is, whether it is authorized by a specific law or regulation, or whether it was established as a result of administrative guidance. 2. Require all private organizations to conduct their activities in an open, transparent and non-discriminatory manner and so as not to restrict the business activities of firms that are not members of the organization. C. Monitoring Mechanism. The Japanese Government should establish an entity to monitor the use of private regulations.

Conformity Assessment Policy

ACIL, ANSI and NIST will sponsor an open workshop on conformity assessment Tuesday, February 9, 1999. The goal is to identify the highest priority conformity assessment issues among the constituencies concerned. Industrial firms, accreditors, testing laboratories, Government regulators, registrars, product certifiers and the general user community are expected to participate. The workshop will include panels on types of conformity assessment activities by experts the public and private sectors. The program will conclude a wrap-up session to identify policy steps to address the concerns.

Tough consequences for false certification of test results. Increasing regulatory use of "suppliers declaration of conformity" to relevant requirements in standards and technical regulations and associates transfer of responsibilities for conducting tests from the public to the private sector is often accompanied with a fear and reservation that businesses will not actually perform the cited tests or will otherwise falsely claim to comply. In the United States the criminal penalties for such actions are severe. Saybolt Inc recently agreed to plead guilty in Federal Court to charges of falsely certifying results of qualitative tests of reformulated gasoline as required under the clean Air Act. As part of the penalty, Saybolt agreed to publicly announce in the news media. "…As a result of a pattern of data falsification, our company has agreed to pay a fine of $3400000 and to be placed on probation for five years. We also agreed to publish this announcement…Accurate reporting of test results …is essential. Failure to do so will expose you to severe penalties. It is also smart business."

Businesses invest heavily in standards committees to create standards that are compatible with or utilize their technology. However, corporate standards strategists must trade off the benefits of a standard’s reference to the company’s proprietary technology against possible constraints on exploiting their intellectual property rights (IPRs). IPR and high stakes global market share is central to current debate about third generation wireless standards. In testimony before Congress this spring, John Major Executive VP at Qualcomm Stated, "Qualcomm holds more than 130 patents relative to CDMA, has approximately 400 patent applications pending around the world, and has licensed 55 companies to manufacture equipment based on this standard. …We believe that the third-generation standards process should recognize and respect the intellectual property rights of patent holders; We believe that markets, rather than governments, should guide the timing and deployment of third-generation services" In this regard, the European Union has legislation underway specifically mandating the use of the telecommunications standards under development within ETSI. The Commission is to "take all necessary measures, where appropriate in cooperation with ETSI, to promote a common and open standard for the provision of compatible UMTS services throughout Europe A Working Group has issued an interim report proposing several alternatives how to proceed in terms of addressing IPR issues in connection with the Third-Generation Mobile Communications standards. Alternatives under consideration: (1) agreeing to a maximum amount of total royalties to be paid in connection with a single standard, (2) forming a Forum which has as a requirement for joining that a company agree to license any related IPR and (3) establishing an independent group to analyze whether a patent is "essential" for implementation of a standard. The outcome here could be globally significant precedents how IPR will be treated in the case where multiple IPR holders have interests in the standard.

Sergio Mazza, ANSI President, announces intention to leave as soon as a successor can be found or he finds an appropriate business opportunity; Giacomo Elias assumes Presidency of ISO. Houlin Zhao (China) succeeds Theo Irmer as Director of the Telecommunications Standards Bureau Director at ITU; Dr. Veit Ghiladi (Vice President Standardization Daimler-Benz AG) follows Don Mackay as President of the International Federation of standards Users (IFAN); Takashi Ohtsubo (Japan Accreditation Bureau) takes over chair of the International Accreditation Forum from Harry Gundlach (Raad Voor Accreditatie); Roni Amit becomes General Secretary of IEC following the retirement of Tony Raeburn; while Mathis Fuenfschilling takes over IEC Presidency from Bernie Falk; Michael McSweeney leaves Standards Council of Canada as Executive Director. Rob Griffen is new President and CEO of CSA, while John Kean will stay as Special Advisor for 1999; Troy Stallard passes chair of ACIL to Walter A. Poggi. Within the European Commission, Reinhard Buescher shifts from Standards to Electronic Commerce; Cornelius Brekelmans takes over Standards; David White fills the Conformity Assessment spot open when Jacques McMillan shifted to Competitiveness and Benchmarking

Can this be True?

The last woman to be jailed in Britain for witchcraft may be offered a posthumous pardon. Helen Davis was jailed in 1944 under the 1735 Witchcraft Act for purporting to have conjured up the spirit of a sailor killed on a battleship. The sinking of the ship HMS Barham was a state secret at the time. After her release from prison, Duncan’s popularity as a spiritualist soared. She was said to conjure up the dead in both spiritual and physical form. Campaigners seeking her official pardon said they had managed to contact Duncan at a sŽance and asked if she supported their efforts. The Spiritualist is said to have told them, "It seems to matter a great deal more down there than it does up here."

More than 600 people including VIP invited guests turned up at Baltimore’s new football stadium last summer to flush the toilets in masse. Engineers staged the simultaneous flushing to make sure the plumbing could withstand a half time surge.

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reported that although duct tape is useful for many home repairs, the one chore it performs poorly is taping ducts. The leading researcher in a program testing the energy performance of buildings reported, "duct tape almost always failed. It failed reliably and often catastrophically."

Did you ever Wonder?

Where the word "dollar" comes from?

In 1519, in the town of Sankt, Czechoslovakia, the silver coin minted from ore at the local mine was called a Joachimstaler. Germans shorted this name to "taler." On the second day of the Second Continental Congress, May 11, 1775, John Hancock of Massachusetts placed before that body a plan to raise funds for support of our forces in the fight for freedom. At the time there were many different kinds of colonial shillings in circulation, all with different values in terms of the English shilling. However, the Spanish silver dollar, which came in by trade across the frontier from Louisiana, which Spain later ceded to France, was the principal coin of commerce. It contained 374 7/8 grains of silver. Thomas Jefferson recommended on September 2, 1776, to the Continental Congress, that the United States adopt the silver "Spanish Milled Dollar" called "Pillar Pieces of Eight", as our monetary unit of value, since daily trade was transacted in that coin.

Words to Live by