Private Standards

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Private standards are a type of standard which includes common requirements, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products, processes and services, and management systems. Private standards are voluntary, although as they may become regarded as mandatory where compliance is requested for entry into certain markets and industry sectors. Private standards can be broken down into three categories.:

• Consortia standards
• Civil society standards
• Company-specific standards

In comparison to private standards, there are other types of standards that include "international standards" which are voluntary consensus, where ISO is an example, and "government standards”, developed by government for its own uses and are also referred to as technical regulations.

Private Standards in Industry

Private standards are used to address industry-driven priorities in the private sector. Three important categories where private standards have proliferated since the 1990’s:

• information and communication technologies (ICT) sector
• food retail, manufacture and agri-food industry sector
• sustainability (social and environmental aspects)

Information and communication technologies (ICT)

In response to industry interest to set its own standards, “consortia ” and “ fora ” emerged in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) where certain specifications are widely recognized as de facto standards.

• Competing ICT standards are explained with examples for power adapters, mobile phone chargers and laptop chargers...

• ISO/IEC JTC1 was created as an ISO/IEC joint technical committee on information technology (ISO/IEC JTC1) where specifications developed by consortia and fora could be transformed into international voluntary consensus standards from ISO and IEC.

Food retail, food manufacture and agri-food industry

Private standards for agri-food relates to food safety, food claims, certification and labeling.

• Some initiatives are managed by groups of leading corporations. An example is the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) which operates under Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) acting as multistakeholder governance.

• Major retailers and food brand owners are held liable for food safety failures in their supply chains and use private standards, for example "BRC is designed to be used as a pillar to help retailers and brand owners with their ‘due diligence’ defence, should they be subject to a prosecution by the enforcement authorities" .

• Using voluntary consensus standards, ISO/TC 34/SC 17 , adhering to the WTO principles for international standards development , published ISO 22000 for food safety management systems. This included the ISO prerequisite programme standards (ISO/TS 22002 series) developed to complement the main management system standard.

• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have published a number of papers in relation to private standards in the agri-food sector , , , , .

Sustainability (social and environmental aspects)

Private standards for sustainability relates to social and environmental aspects, sustainability claims, certification and labeling. Creating requirements for carbon footprint, eco-labeling, sustainable management of natural resources (forests, fisheries, biofuels), fair trade practices, organizational accountability and social responsibility.

• In sustainable development sector, the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) have created the Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative (SSCI) acting as multistakeholder governance .

• The Association of Professional Social Compliance Auditors (APSCA) was established in 2015 to enhance the professionalism, consistency, and credibility of individuals and organizations performing social compliance audits .

• ISO, using voluntary consensus standards, provides the ISO 14000 family of environmental standards addressing environmental management, environmental labelling, greenhouse gas measurement, and drinking water / wastewater services. ISO has also developed ISO 26000 standard as guidance for social responsibility.

Government, Intergovernmental and Regulatory Positions

Examples include:

• The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued CIRCULAR NO. A-119 Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities

• EU Commission Communication paper for voluntary certification schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs .

• Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems - Draft Principles and Guideline for the assessment and use of voluntary third-party assurance (vTPA) Programmes.

• Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Voluntary Pilot Program to Evaluate Alignment of Third-Party Food Safety Standards with FSMA Rules .

• World Trade Organization (WTO) endorse International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) international standards and conformity assessment systems.

• The Technical barriers to trade (TBT) Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) - Annex 3 of the TBT Agreement is the Code of Good Practice for the Preparation, Adoption and Application of Standards, also known as the TBT Code of Good Practice

• Examples of regulators adopting international voluntary consensus standards in the energy and environment sector are provided by ISO.

• Various papers and research related to standardization in the public sector have also been published

See also

• Consumer Goods Forum
• De facto standard
• GFSI
• International Electrotechnical Commission
• ISO 14000
• ISO 22000
• ISO 26000
• International Organization for Standardization
• Multistakeholder governance
• Standardization
• Technical barriers to trade
• World Trade Organization

References

This article "Private Standards" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Private Standards. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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