Standards Influences in the Middle East and North Africa

1
Standards Influences in the Middle East and North
Africa

• Renee Hancher
• Office of Multilateral Affairs
• Market Access and Compliance/ITA

2
Overview

• United States and the European Union (EU)
• Worlds largest markets
• Worlds biggest standards developers
• U.S. standardization system is market-driven and
  private sector-led.
  
• European standardization system is
  government-driven and top down.
  
• Both the United States and European Union are
  undertaking
  
• standards activities in many countries and
  regions.
  

3
Europes Standards Activities in the Middle East

• Neighborhood Policy
• Delivery of Technical Assistance
• CEN/CENELEC Agreements

4
European Neighborhood Policy

• A framework for relations with the European
  Unions eastern and southern neighbor states.
  
• Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya,
  Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria and
  Tunisia.
  
• Bilateral Action Plans identify areas for
  cooperation and influence technical assistance
  provided by the EU
  
• Association Agreements address standards and
  conformity assessment.
  
• Active agreements Israel, Jordan, Morocco,
  Palestinian Authority and Tunisia.
  
• In process Algeria, Lebanon and Syria

5
European Technical Assistance

• Encourages institution building and development
  of regulatory infrastructure to support standards
  and conformity assessment
  
• Promotes Europes regulatory system and
  standards
  
• Free standards
• Commercial Service Brussels estimates European
  standards technical assistance to the Middle East
  since 1996 at 72 million.
  
• Algeria 500,000
• Jordan 4.6 million
• Lebanon 7.2 million
• Morocco 1.9 million
• Tunisia 6 million
• MEDA 7 million

6
CEN and CENELEC Partner Agreements

• Solidify standards ties in specific sectors
• For countries that are ISO members, but cannot
  join CEN or CENELEC
  
• CEN (Partner Standardization Bodies)
• Obligated to implement European standards as
  national standards for technical committees where
  active.
  
• PSB must withdraw conflicting national standards
  when adopting European standards.
  

7
CEN/CENELEC PARTNERS

• CEN
• CEN PARTNER STANDARDIZATION BODIES
• Egypt
• Tunisia
• Israel (considering)
• CENELEC AFFILIATES
• Tunisia
• Israel (considering)

8
USG Standards Related Activities in the Middle
East and North Africa

• Technical Assistance
• Free Trade Agreement TBT chapters
• NIST Standards in Trade Workshops
• Other Initiatives

9
U.S. Standards Technical Assistance

• USAID Trade Capacity Database reports TBT-related
  technical assistance at 3.4 million for
  2000-2004
  
• Private sector efforts by ANSI and SDOs are
  significant
  
• Delivered to Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan,
  Lebanon, and Morocco.

10
Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)

• United States has FTAs with Bahrain, Israel,
  Jordan and Morocco
  
• OMA FTA implementing legislation signed
• UAE FTA in process
• Recent FTAs have TBT chapters that build on WTO
  TBT Agreement provisions, encourage use of
  international standards
  
• Israel and Jordan FTAs have no TBT chapters.

11
NIST Standards in Trade Workshops

• Raise awareness by foreign government and private
  sectors representatives about the U.S.
  standardization system.
  
• Nine workshops for the region in the last
  decade
  
• Iraq Housing and construction sectors
• MENA/ Life safety/building construction
• Pakistan
• Israel Roadway infrastructure and ITS
• GCC Electrical appliance safety metrology

12
Other Initiatives

• Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP)
• Provides standards-related technical assistance
  to WTO members and FTA partners
  
• Example 2006 Moroccan delegation studied U.S.
  regulatory system.
  
• Afghanistan and Iraq
• USG working to set up standards infrastructures
• NIST standards advisor deployed to Iraq in 2006.

13
ITA Follow-Up

• ITA continues to monitor - -private sector input
  welcome
  
• Report market access issues to DOC
  (tcc.export.gov)
  
• Notify U.S. provides information on proposed
  foreign technical regulations that can affect
  exporters.
  
• http//tsapps.nist.gov/notifyus/data/index/index
  .cfm
  

14
Have Increased Use of European Standards in the
Middle East and North Africa or the CEN/CENELEC
partner agreements affected

• Information flows (transparency)
• U.S. exports to the region
• Participation in standards development
• Please provide specific examples.