Differences In Standardization Between China And The United States

April 26th, American Standard, especially industry. standard It has received wide attention worldwide. Because the American standard is international standard A lot of American standards have become the basis of international standards, many American. Industry standard They are all in fact international standards. Not only that, the US testing and certification system has been widely imitated internationally.

For multinational enterprises, it is very important to understand the standard system of the US market and the operation mechanism of the US standardization system. At present, China has become the most important product manufacturing base in the world. More and more enterprises are involved in global competition and cooperation. A large number of products should be tested according to the foreign standards. It is bound to require our testing organizations to provide testing services in accordance with international standards. Therefore, it is also necessary to understand the standardization operation mechanism of the United States at all levels of product quality inspection institutions.

　　 Overview of American Standard Work

There are four standards in the United States: national standards, departmental standards, professional standards (or industry standards), and company standards. From the perspective of the constitution of the US standard system, the standards of various departments of the US government are mainly formulated from the perspective of protecting consumers' safety and health. In general, the role played by the government in standardization activities is very limited, and the standards of professional associations and professional associations as non-governmental organizations are dominant. The United States adopts voluntary standard system, that is, voluntary participation in the preparation and voluntary adoption. It constitutes members of professional associations and professional associations and is also an enterprise and professional person participating in the principle of voluntariness. Therefore, there are a lot of standard groups in the United States, about more than 400, most of which are trade associations and professional associations.

It can be seen that American trade associations and professional associations play a leading role in standardization activities, which is a major feature of standardization in the United States. In addition, government departments at all levels are formulating their respective field standards and government procurement standards, such as the Ministry of national defense, the Ministry of agriculture, the Environmental Protection Bureau, the food and drug administration, and the consumer product safety commission. Since the main standard setters are the standardized bodies of various non-governmental organizations, the standard draft is mainly composed of enterprises and professionals. In the process of revising standards, enterprises, professionals and consumer representatives will actively participate in the discussion in their own interests. This process ensures consensus and fully reflects the development and characteristics of the industry. It should be said that the process of discussion is a kind of "fighting game", and each side is trying to reflect its own interests to the standard. This result will not cause serious damage to the interests of a group, but also promote the development of the industry.

　 Differences in standardization between China and the United States

1. the concept of standard setting is different. In the United States, the United States advocates the idea of "market driven and civil led" in the formulation of standards. This concept requires that standardization activities must be based on the initiative of the market, follow the principle of voluntariness and consensus, and strengthen the participation of the government on the basis of non-governmental organizations, which is characterized by a "bottom up" standard setting mechanism.

The idea of standardization in the United States comes from the economic development concept of "big market and small government" under the free market economy system. Take our visit to ASTM as an example, its standard setting activities have always been guided by market demand, welcome and allow standard recommendations in the world to enter the standard setting process of ASTM, and become the ASTM standard through consensus. In the formulation process, from the standard proposal, drafting, voting to issuing, are the main functions or even decisive functions of the non-governmental organizations. Of course, the participation of the government is also necessary, but it is only a participant in the market, and the government's executive power can not be reflected in the consultations with the members of the private sector on an equal footing. In China, standardization activities have always been a kind of government behavior. Standardization activities are in an "administrative driven and government led" situation, sometimes mandatory, experts agree and administrative publicity is the main means. Although civil power is also increasingly involved in the formulation of standards, most of them are invited to participate, and members of the technical committee need approval, and they can not participate freely and openly. In recent years, in order to meet the needs of the development of the socialist market economy, we have put forward a new standard setting concept of "government guidance, enterprise main body and market orientation", and encouraged the expansion of enterprises' participation on the basis of administrative drive.

2. the standpoint of standardization activities is different. In the process of learning and investigation, we have a strong feeling that the standpoint of Chinese and American standardization is different. It should be said that the United States has been carrying out its standardization activities from the perspective of globalization. It has been facing the world in its early stage, while China's standardise activities focus on the domestic market and not enough for the global market. Take ASTM as an example, the organization was one of the earliest established standards making bodies in the United States and even in the world, and it was founded in 1898. At the beginning of its establishment, its standard activities were global. The membership system of ASTM was global. The members who participated in the ASTM standard setting activities were technical experts from many countries. Although they did not represent their respective countries, they represented their own or their service enterprises and institutions, but they took the technological thinking and technological resources of their respective countries and markets to take part in the ASTM standard setting activities. Their standard results served the global market. Relatively speaking, China's standardization activities, whether in the formulation of national standards or in the formulation of industry standards, mostly focus on China's domestic market. The guiding ideology of standard activities is limited to solving domestic market problems and serving domestic market demand. Experts who participated in standard setting activities have long been limited to Chinese citizens and organizations. It can be seen that China's standardization activities, both in terms of technology sources and the identities of the makers, have only been oriented towards the domestic market for a long time, and the global strategy needs to be strengthened.

3. the standard setting procedure is different. In the United States, there is a rigorous formulation process for the whole process of recommendation, drafting, consultation, voting and approval. In the course of ASTM inspection, the staff introduced to us that the standard of the organization was drafted to the distribution process: the working group drafted the standard - sent to the sub committee of Technology (SC) for the first time to vote through - to the main technical committee (TC) for a wider range of vote - to submit to the Standardization Technical Committee for deliberation approval approval - release. In the process of voting between the technical committee and the main technical committee, the voting procedure will stop until the opposing votes are resolved. At home, no matter the formulation of national standards or the formulation of industrial standards, there are suggestions, projects, drafting, voting, examination and approval, and the issuance of the whole process. However, in the institutional arrangement, the three links of the formulation, approval and issuance of standards are separately managed and operated. In practice, due to the lack of representativeness of the members of the Standardization Technical Committee, the formulation of a standard is often difficult to assimilate the different technical ideas and suggestions of the whole industry or category. The consensus coverage needs to be strengthened, and the market adaptability of the standard needs to be improved.

In addition to the above points, there are great differences between the standardization work of the United States and China in many aspects such as funding sources and institutional arrangements. China is still a developing country. There is still a big gap between the level of science and technology and the degree of internationalization. The different cultural background and economic development stages determine the current status of our standardization system. At present, China is vigorously implementing the spanformation of the mode of economic development and experiencing the strategic spanformation from "made in China" to "created in China". Standardization is an important technical foundation for national economic and social development, and an important factor to promote China's technological progress, industrial upgrading and quality improvement. With the development of economic globalization, standardization in China must also learn from the advanced experience of developed countries, focusing on the internationalization of standard setting and the marketization of standard operation. The government, enterprises and quality inspection institutions should conscientiously strengthen the research on foreign standard systems and advanced standards, adopt a global perspective in the process of standard management and standard setting, so as to make our standardization work more adapted to the requirements of world economic development and help domestic enterprises better participate in international competition.