International Cooperation
Over the past few years DIN has drawn up cooperation agreements with other countries including the USA, the Russian Federation, China and India.
USA
Russian Federation
China
India
Indonesia
The goal of all DIN’s activities at international standards policy level is to contribute towards the elimination of technical barriers to trade worldwide. This is also the reason why DIN assumes leadership functions in European and international standards organizations with a view to playing an active part in shaping the standardization system. It champions the worldwide implementation of the European standardization model based on the Vienna and Dresden Agreements.
These activities have been reinforced by Goal 1 of the German standardization strategy: “Standards secure Germany’s position as a leading economic nation”. The course of action designed to implement this goal is based on the reasoning that “In the face of increasing market globalization and growing competition, the international standardization system needs to be strengthened as the basis for uniform regional and national standards."
DIN sets great store by cooperation with the standards organizations of major economic nations and emerging economic regions.
USA
The region of the world with which Europe has the strongest connections is North America. Together, the two regions account for about 60 % of global GDP. 25 % of all goods exported from the EU are destined for the USA and Canada. At the same time diverging technical standards in Europe and the USA remain a challenge.
DIN campaigns vigorously in the USA to promote the benefits of an international standards system as represented by ISO and IEC with the adoption of the International Standards as national standards. An example of DIN’s commitment is its co-sponsorship of the conference held by the Dräger Foundation and the United States Chamber of Commerce, an event which takes place regularly between German and American representatives from politics, trade and industry, who meet to discuss issues connected with the transatlantic market. See also the brochures "5th Transatlantic Market Conference" (2011), "4th Transatlantic Market Conference" (2009), "3rd Transatlantic Market Conference" (2007) und "Towards a Transatlantic Marketplace" (2006).
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Russian Federation
On 19 October 2006, DIN and the national standards body of the Russian Federation, the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology, signed an agreement on the continuation of their collaboration, which centres on issues revolving around technical regulation, the harmonization of technical rules and conformity assessment. DIN’s Russian partner is especially interested in DIN’s experience with the interaction of legislation and voluntary standardization in matters of technical safety. The harmonization of the standards of the two countries (involving the progressive adaption of Russian technical rules to European Standards) plays a key role in ensuring that differences do not stand in the way of the dynamic development of German-Russian trade.
Russian companies have an increasingly important part to play in this process since a reform of technical standards can have only moderate success without the wide and active participation of stakeholders from industry. As a result, a cooperation agreement has also existed between DIN and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) since October 2006.
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China
The close cooperation between DIN and the Chinese standards body is understood by both parties as a strategic partnership benefiting both economies, and has a long tradition. The first agreement, dating from 1979, provided for DIN to supply the Chinese standards body with DIN Standards, thus making a major contribution to trade relations with China. There has also been a lively exchange of experts discussing procedural matters relating to quality assurance, OHS, environmental and consumer safety, conformity assessment, standardization and legal issues.
On 10 April 2006, DIN and the Standardization Administration of the People´s Republic of China (SAC) signed an agreement on close cooperation in the development of new topics for ISO and IEC standardization, the exchange of experts and work on research projects of interest to both countries.
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India
DIN maintains a cooperation agreement with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), which was signed at the Hanover Trade Fair in April 2005. The primary aim of this agreement is to promote the bilateral exchange of goods by removing technical barriers to trade. This involves close collaboration in the development of an information system on standardization at all levels and the exchange of experts, and also a number of twinning projects in which both countries look after technical committees of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) co-jointly. India has also specifically asked for guidance on matters relating to approval of products intended for the European market (such as CE marking).
Indonesia
On 15 October 2008 DIN and the National Standardization Agency of Indonesia (BSN) signed a cooperation agreement. The aim of this agreement is to further strengthen the good relations between Indonesia and Germany in the standardization sector, thus promoting trade relations. Indonesia sees Germany as an important partner in terms of both bilateral relations and relations with the European Union. Currently around 250 German firms are present in Indonesia, many of which have production facilities there. In 2007 the trade volume between Indonesia and Germany increased by 9,3 % to 4,737 billion euros, and German exports to Indonesia rose to 1,586 billion euros. In terms of development cooperation, Germany is Indonesia's fourth-largest bilateral partner with financial assistance of nearly 3 billion euros, after Japan, Australia and the US.
The content of the agreement includes cooperation projects involving the setting up of a standardization system and a national information centre for queries dealing with standardization. In addition, the partners agreed that they would take on international twinning projects in areas of mutual interest, as well as twinning at the level of committee secretariat in ISO. The cooperation agreement also covers assistance in the development of a CE certification infrastructure at BSN, an exchange of experts, and the organization of conferences, seminars, workshops and training sessions in Indonesia.