Strengthening the Compliance of the OIC Member States
to International Standards
5
collectively commit to achieve a given degree of international standards harmonization by a certain date.
The economic interest of doing so is clear, and the APEC example suggests that if countries are truly
convinced of the rationale, it is possible to move forward effectively even without legal instruments and
sanctions for non-compliance.
OIC member states can move forward on the international standards harmonization agenda in a variety
of different ways. There is clear scope to bring economic benefits in terms of improved market access
and export competitiveness by developing national and regional quality infrastructure, as well as by
relying on international standards as the basis for national norms. Concretely, member states could give
consideration to the following recommendations to improve their harmonization basis and reap these
economic gains:
National Agenda:
1) Conduct an audit on national quality infrastructure, leveraging outside assistance—particularly
from UNIDO—as appropriate;
2) Particularly in Africa and Asia, follow the global trend away from mandatory public standards
and towards private voluntary standards, notably in manufactured goods sectors including
electrical equipment and machinery;
3) Explicitly recognize the important role international standards play in the global and regional
economic landscape, and commit to use international standards as the basis for national
standards whenever practicable;
4) Commit to increase the proportion of national standards harmonized with international
standards issued by organizations like ISO, IEC, ITU, and the Codex;
5) Promote adoption of the practice of de facto international harmonization, i.e. authorization for
sale of goods that comply with international standards when no contrary national standard is in
force;
6) Support the private sector, especially through publication and awareness raising, in their efforts
to use internationally harmonized standards in practice;
Regional agenda:
7) Commit to reduce the standards burden affecting exports of key products by other OIC member
states;
8) Reinforce regional structures for standards harmonization, and ensure that, whenever possible,
regional standards are based on international ones;
9) Further develop mutual recognition of conformity assessments, including on a regional or pluri-
lateral basis;