Standards in the Middle East

							Standards Influences
in the Middle East
and North Africa
Renee Hancher
Office of Multilateral Affairs
Market Access and
Compliance/ITA
Overview

•   United States and the European Union (EU)
     – World’s largest markets
     – World’s 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.



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Europe’s Standards Activities in the Middle East


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




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European Neighborhood Policy

•   A framework for relations with the European Union’s 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




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European Technical Assistance

•   Encourages institution building and development of regulatory
    infrastructure to support standards and conformity assessment;
•   Promotes Europe’s 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



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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.




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CEN/CENELEC PARTNERS




     CEN
     CEN PARTNER STANDARDIZATION BODIES
       Egypt
       Tunisia
       Israel (considering)

     CENELEC AFFILIATES
       Tunisia
       Israel (considering)




                                          7
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




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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.




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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.




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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




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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.




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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




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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.




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