International standard

An international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Other prominent international standards organizations including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Together, these three organizations have formed the World Standards Cooperation alliance. International standards may be used either by direct application or by a process of modifying an international standard to suit local conditions. Adopting international standards results in creating national standards that are equivalent, or substantially the same as international standards in technical content, but may have (i) editorial differences as to appearance, use of symbols and measurement units, substitution of a point for a comma as the decimal marker, and (ii) differences resulting from conflicts in government regulations or industry-specific requirements caused by fundamental climatic, geographic, technologic, or infrastructure factors, or the stringency of safety requirements that a given standard authority considers appropriate. International standards are one way to overcome technical barriers in international commerce caused by differences among technical regulations and standards developed independently and separately by each nation, national standards organization, or business. Technical barriers arise when different groups come together, each with a large user base, doing some well established thing that between them is mutually incompatible. Establishing international standards is one way of preventing or overcoming this problem. To support this, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee published the "Six Principles" guiding members in the development of international standards.