Global Britain needs global standards – let’s protect a system that works for the UK

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Shaping international standards is one of those great, unknown British success stories. Over recent decades, countries all over the world have come to realise the benefit of agreeing common standards that deliver the safety of products, protect people in the workplace and unlock opportunities for innovation. Thousands of people representing UK industry, consumer and business interests have been involved in this journey. Today the UK manages some 100 important international committees which are influenced by UK experts and shape decisions taken by businesses on every continent.

Each country has an organisation like mine, the British Standards Institution, appointed as the national standards body to manage national standards and co-ordinate with other countries through a highly developed consensus-building system. BSI is not a part of government – we are a Royal Charter organisation, and our role to provide the infrastructure for UK influence in international, European regional and national standards making, in line with the public policy interest. 

The standards system is separate from the European Union, the United Nations and other intergovernmental organisations, although it routinely works collaboratively with them. Its influence extends to nearly every product and service you can buy in this country, and those sold almost everywhere else in the world too.

More than tariffs, more than quotas, a uniformity of standards supports businesses to trade across borders. Arguably, it is the UK’s biggest single contribution to global trade. Those standards simplify the conditions of market access across the world, reducing technical barriers to trade, and underpin the rules-based system of international trade. The more that common standards are adopted globally, the easier it is for businesses of all sizes and sectors to win customers in markets near and far. These standards are not laws, but good practice benchmarks, agreed by businesses, consumers and regulators. 

In our system, we constantly develop new standards, where these are needed by our stakeholders, update existing ones, but also remove any that are outdated or no longer relevant from the national catalogue. Because we work to streamline and internationalise the standards we use, our businesses enjoy straightforward access to markets around the world. Crucially, UK stakeholders have influenced and agreed all the standards that are helping to achieve this access.

Originally conceived over a century ago to provide consistency in the dimensions of steel sections and the safety of electrical wiring, standards have grown to cover all major sectors of the economy. Today, they guide businesses to recognise the value of their employees, build consumer trust and enable environmental improvements. Our standards deliver far more than just technical specifications; they help drive progress in society. 

What’s more, this success story is not determined by the UK’s membership of the EU, or whether the UK leaves the EU with or without a deal, but it could none the less be thrown away absent-mindedly, almost carelessly, in the coming weeks or months. This global approach, which offers clarity and predictability, is shared by every major economy bar one. The exception is the United States. Many assume that the USA is the most open and barrier free economy in the world. However, in the case of standards, it is pretty much the opposite. 

The rest of the world, including the UK, is moving towards national catalogues of standards that are streamlined and increasingly global, that support innovation and make trade as open, fast and friction-free as possible. The US system has many conflicting and inconsistent standards in a fragmented market. US law has no systematic way to reflect that standards move with the times as technology develops; it can be slow to be updated or changed, leading to laws that reference out of date or obsolete standards. Requirements for placing products in markets in the US are controlled at federal, state and municipal level, creating a confusing knot for businesses to untangle and therefore barriers to trade, both into and between states, that are difficult enough for large corporates to sift through, let alone small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 

This issue is urgent, because it is likely that US negotiators will request the UK agrees to the recognition of its standards as part of any US-UK trade deal. The consequence of this could be that the UK would have to accept that using US private interest standards would give rise to the same presumption of legal conformity to UK regulations as British Standards with no guarantee that British Standards would be accepted on a reciprocal basis. We risk losing control of the standards used in the UK but gaining nothing in return.

Within the UK, following a US-style approach would make it harder for UK businesses and consumers to influence standards that apply globally, and on the UK and European markets. We would become a standards taker, reliant on other countries to set the standards that our industry and consumers would have to follow. Recognising American standards as equivalent to British Standards would bring fragmentation of the UK market and confusion amongst consumers and enforcement authorities over which standards can be used for regulatory conformity for specific products. 

The UK is today a hugely influential leader in global standards development. We must not yield that position. Global Britain needs global standards that our industry experts, regulators and consumers help to shape and want to see adopted as national standards in the UK. The Brexit debate has thrown a spotlight on this vital yet underused strategic tool for delivering UK soft power. Governments today and in the future must recognise that the UK, as an open, progressive country, needs to be at the top table of international standards, supporting an ambitious trade policy, focused on delivering prosperity for all.

BSI is independent and politically neutral. To reflect this, a similar article has been placed with ConservativeHome.