Standards agencies urged to collaborate to sustain global trade

Standards authorities in developing countries must forge stronger collaborations with international organisations and customs agencies to help promote standards and ensure development  and sustainable international trade, the Global Lead for Trade Facilitation, Customs Modernisation and Boarder Management of the World Bank Group, Mr Bill Gain has said.

He said although the private sector was the biggest beneficiary of standards enforcement, it was the responsibility of governments in developing countries to position standards as a facilitator of trade.

He said they could do this by establishing collaborations with international organisations  such as the World Trade organisation (WTO) and the International Standards Organisation (ISO) to help ensure that all products complied with global standards.

Mr Gain was speaking during a panel discussion on the challenges ahead for developing countries, following the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution, at the 42nd ISO General Assembly  in Cape Town, South Africa today (September 17).

“Small scale businesses are the engine of growth in developing countries and they need support from international organisations such as the ISO.

“No longer is the national approach sufficient,” he said.

He explained that developing countries would be the most affected by the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution and that there was a need for standards organisations, especially in sub-Sahara Africa to formulate internationally tailored policies to help propel rapid development.

“It includes looking beyond national to regional and global best systems for growth and jobs,” Mr Gain said.

Choices

Contributing to the discussion, the Africa Network Director of the intrrnational magazine, the Economist, Mr Herman Warren, said developing countries must consider the disruptions in global trade.

He said such disruptions had been heightened by the trade war between China and the United States of America (USA), to make decisive choices.

He said the trade war between the two countries was about technology, intellectual property theft and artificial intelligence, which would be the drivers of the fourth industrial revolution.

As a result, he said emerging economies must make the right choices when selecting development partners.

“Chinese financial institutions are loaning more money than the IMF and the World Bank and all these are connected to standards, and developing countries have a choice to make,” he said.

ISO week

Since its formation in the wake of World War II in 1947, the ISO has set more than 22,000 standards that governments can adopt to help protect their citizens and the environment.

Examples include the standards that ensure stoves and microwaves are safe and that cleaning products are free of substances that deplete the ozone layer.

The ISO Week 2019 is expected to provide the opportunity to put standards at the heart of the global agenda and help define the strategies that will guide standards organisations .

It will also help set a clear role for standards in supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Opening the ISO General Assembly (today), the President of ISO, Mr John Walter said the challenge shared by member organisations of the ISO was to evolve their strategy and to realise their full potential to contribute to a better future through widespread awareness and use of international standards.

“Climate change, population growth, and pressure on resources threaten to undermine some of the advances that have been made since ISO was founded. ISO week 2019 is the chance to reinforce the relevance of our organisation to today's global agenda,” Mr Walter said.

Standards in mordrrn economy

The acting Chief Executive Officer of the South African Bureau of Standards, who also spoke at the opening of the General Assembly, said standards played a significant role in a rapidly changing and dynamic global economy, which was characterised by quantum leaps in disruptive technology, driven by the fourth industrial revolution, global value chains and economic integration, the global environmental crisis and the critical importance of sustainable and equitable economic development.

He said these and other issues placed an enormous responsibility on the collective standards community to evaluate, strengthen and set out, in the next iteration of the ISO strategy, the vital role that standards must play in response to these challenges.