American National Standards Institute (ANSI) president and CEO, S. Joe Bhatia, has advice for U.S. companies on a topic we don’t often see in the news. Streamlining standards and conformance procedures is becoming increasingly essential in an increasingly complex global economy, and is extremely important to business competitiveness and global trade. Standards apply to the quality, safety, intellectual property, and environmental performance of both manufactured products and services.

For example, standards in manufacturing are important for U.S. businesses to increase productivity and reduce costs. Standards in energy efficiency can encourage businesses abroad to match the stricter but environmentally friendly standards of production that many U.S. companies already follow.

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) works through trade agreements and international economic cooperatives like the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperative (APEC) to encourage other countries to set and enforce shared standards and conformance procedures. This process helps to facilitate the conduct of international trade for more rapid trade flows.

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