Regional Cooperation
Under the Closer Economic Relations agreement, Standards Australia maintains a strong working relationship with Standards New Zealand. A formal agreement is in place that sees us prepare and publish joint standards where appropriate. See our Joint Standards Fact Sheet for more information.
As a founding member of the Pacific Area Standards Congress (PASC), we also closely cooperate with the government in the standards and conformance activities of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN-CER).
Adopting International Standards
Participation in the global market requires compliance with International Standards. Wherever possible, Standards Australia will adopt International Standards. If there are no existing or relevant international or regional standards, national standards may be developed.
The World Trade Organization Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO TBT) requires members use international standards (or the relevant parts of them) as a basis for their technical regulations, where they can. WTO TBT also requires that members use international standards as a basis for national standard development wherever appropriate.