Newswise — ASME and three other leading standards organizations have joined together to form the Consortium for Standards and Conformity Assessment for the purpose of establishing an office in Beijing, China. The efforts of the Consortium will be helped by a three-year, $399,500 award from the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration. The Consortium will begin startup activities for its Beijing office before the end of 2004.
The primary aim of the consortium is to advocate the use of U.S. and Canadian technical standards in China as well as promote the development of Chinese standards programs that are compatible with programs in North America. While emerging as an industrial power and a key player in the global economy, China has recently begun to develop internationally recognized technical standards that are key to allowing free trade among nations. The Consortium will enable U.S.-based international standards developers to establish a continuous presence in Beijing to build relationships and help the Chinese conform to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on standards and trade.
The Commerce Department award will help the Consortium get established even more quickly than had been anticipated. "This award will help us to immediately establish a firmer standards presence in China," stated June Ling, ASME's Associate Executive Director for Codes & Standards. "Over the past several years, we have developed relationships with key Chinese officials, and having an on-the-ground presence in Beijing will help cement those relationships and further efforts to open Chinese markets to U.S. goods and services," Ling added.
In addition to ASME as the lead organization, the members of the Consortium for Standards and Conformity Assessment are ASTM International, the American Petroleum Institute, and CSA America. All four members of the consortium are world leaders in standards development. ASME publishes more than 600 codes and standards covering pressure vessels, escalators and elevators, pipelines, plumbing devices, and many other products and systems.
Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, today's ASME is a 120,000-member professional organization focused on technical, educational and research issues of the engineering and technology community. ASME conducts one of the world's largest technical publishing operations, holds numerous technical conferences worldwide, and offers hundreds of professional development courses each year. ASME sets internationally recognized industrial and manufacturing codes and standards that enhance public safety.
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