Business Need and Opportunities for Transatlantic Harmonization of Standards and Conformity Assessment

In debates about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), technical regulation, standards, and conformity assessment get little attention. This is what we address in this paper and—deviating from current studies and position papers that take a policy perspective—we take a business perspective. ‘One standard, one test, accepted everywhere’ is in the interest of companies and fully fits with what TTIP aims to bring: a single transatlantic market without barriers to trade. Indeed, industry associations on both sides of the Atlantic welcome TTIP; ‘tackling regulatory divergences between the EU and the US will equally benefit businesses of all sizes and increase transatlantic trade flows.’ In this paper, we list differences between the two systems, we investigate the extent to which such differences cause any problems for companies, and we suggest and discuss opportunities for improvement—no matter if these will be part of a TTIP treaty or another form of enhanced cooperation.