Seeking market relevance: survival on a global scale

2003-07-29

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.--George Bernard Shaw

    In the world of commerce and industry, survival of the fittest, that ageless law of nature, is often referenced as a guiding principle. But, the fittest are not always the strongest. Quite often, the fittest are those endowed with the qualifications for adaptation, the ability to accept the inevitable and conform to the unavoidable, to harmonize with existing or changing conditions.

In these rapidly changing times in which we live, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is proving its survival skills by adapting to its environment and taking a more market-relevant approach to standardization.

An IEC Task Force, known as the Global Relevance Task Force (GRTF) was established in April 2000. It was tasked with determining the extent to which IEC Standards are being readily adopted and, if appropriate, to recommend ways to increase global adoption levels. Among the challenges facing the GRTF was the variable nature of the global environment in which these standards are implemented and the need to balance the objectives of global relevance against the overall goal of international standardization: the harmonization of national standards.

As part of a survey to find out if IEC standards are meeting the requirements of global markets, the GRTF noted that national committees reported that only 50 percent of the 40 IEC standards surveyed had been adopted without significant deviations. The survey also uncovered that there are some common reasons why countries may have difficulty in readily adopting IEC standards, including essential differences in technical infrastructure, climate, and regulations.

Tony Flood, President of the Canadian National Committee of IEC and Chairman of the GRTF explains: "the basic goal of international standardization is to facilitate the removal of technical barriers to trade (TBTs) by encouraging the harmonization of national standards through the adoption of international standards. The GRTF quickly realized that if the rate of adoption was to improve, IEC standards must relate more closely to the needs of individual regions. The question was how to do this without loosing the integrity of the system."

When the essential requirements of an IEC standard are similar or the same as those of the national or regional equivalent, harmonization by a majority vote works well. But when technical infrastructures and climatic conditions are different from those addressed in the IEC standard, adoption of the standard can be difficult, if not impossible Countries either don't adopt the IEC standard as their national standard or they implement a greatly modified version. Although many IEC standards already cover differences in market needs, they don't always give equal treatment to the different requirements. Also, Technical Committees are often driven by their geographic constituency, and may not be aware of the existence of other essential requirements or may interpret the importance of other requirements differently, based on the needs of their own constituents.

The development of international standards is a complex process and significant variations in essential requirements between market regions make it difficult to reach consensus. When this happens, it is not unusual for only one essential requirement -- the one collecting the most votes -- to be recognized as the international standard and the others as deviations. However, the World Trade Organization (WTO) in defining the essential characteristics of an international standard, now clearly specifies that preference should not be given "to the characteristics or requirements of specific countries or regions when different needs or interests exist in other countries or regions".

This represents a major challenge for the IEC: ensuring that the development of international standards is as close as possible to the "one standard" goal of international standardization, yet in compliance with the WTO definition.

To accommodate the WTO's "equal treatment" requirement, the GRTF carefully considered whether essential differences should be shown as informative or normative parts in the body of the IEC standard. A major concern for the GRTF was to ensure any change in the process would not result in the development of "catalogue standards" in those cases where many differences could be claimed. In the end, the GRTF recommended that the main body of an international standard should include, as normative, differences in essential requirements resulting only from permanent differences in technical infrastructure or climate. The GRTF recommended that differences due to regulations should not be considered as permanent and should be included in an informative annex in the relevant standard.

At a meeting held on October 30, 2002, in Beijing, China, the IEC Council Board approved the implementation plan. The document entitled "Implementation of Essential Differences in Requirements in IEC Standards" establishes the conditions under which these essential differences may be included in an IEC standard.

This is an important step forward for international electrotechnical standardization. Put into practice in the marketplace, the Global Relevance policy is expected to contribute to an increase in the adoption of IEC standards, a decrease in modifications at the national level and the increased potential for global product designs. For IEC, survival on a global scale has meant continuing to do what it does best, adapting to the changing conditions of the markets represented by its' stakeholders.

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About the IEC

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) comprises 122 countries -- 63 member "National Committees" and a further 59 countries that participate in the IEC Affiliate Country Programme -- and is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes international standards for electrical, electronic and related technologies. These serve as a basis for national standardization, in accordance with the World Trade Organization's Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement, and as references when drafting international tenders and contracts. The IEC Catalogue currently comprises over 4800 International Standards, Specifications and Technical Reports.

The IEC charter embraces all electrotechnologies including electronics, magnetics and electromagnetics, electroacoustics, multimedia, telecommunication, and energy production and distribution, as well as associated general disciplines such as terminology and symbols, electromagnetic compatibility, measurement and performance, dependability, design and development, safety and the environment. For additional information on the IEC, see www.iec.ch.

Background / Links:

Focus Piece: IEC acts to ensure global relevance of its standards
News Release: IEC's 66th General Meeting in Beijing

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