June 27-A two-day workshop in Jakarta on good regulatory practice in Indonesia and the United States has marked the first official event of the ANSI-USAID Standards Alliance, a program that will be assisting up to 10 developing countries in meeting the requirements of the WTO’s Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement over a three-year period.

The alliance will be providing instruction on the principles underlying the TBT Agreement; implementation of the agreement’s code of practice for the preparation, adoption and application of standards; and transparency in technical regulation. Countries will be selected for assistance on the basis of their readiness and commitment as well as the potential impact of assistance on development and trade. A number of countries have already applied to the program.

Held on June 21 and 22, the inaugural workshop focused on three principles of good regulatory practice: interagency coordination, the importance of regulatory impact assessments, and public consultation.

Representatives of numerous public and private organizations attended the workshop . These included speakers from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the National Institute of Standards and Technology, American National Standards Institute (ANSI), Toy Industry Association, International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Indonesian Chamber of Commerce, the National Standards Agency of Indonesia (BSN), Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Industry, Ministry of National Development Planning, and the Employers Association of Indonesia (APINDO).

The Standards Alliance will be officially launched in the United States in the coming months.

The workshop was organized by the USTR, BSN, and the Support for Economic Analysis Development in Indonesia (SEADI) project, a USAID project managed by Nathan Associates.