Standards in the international telecommunications regime

Technical standards in telecommunications – the central focus of this paper - were traditionally developed by official government accredited or intergovernmental organizations. In the last two decades, however, private forums and consortia of standardization have evolved which initiated a shift from a predominantly technical to a business approach to standards-setting. The business perspective also guides the evaluation of standards in trade policy at the European and at the international level. In the EU and more so in the WTO regional and national diversity of standards is generally regarded as a barrier to trade. Thus harmonization of diverging standards – and not standards competition – and/or the adoption of new international standards is stipulated. Only standards adopted by official organizations are regarded as legitimate. Private organizations and the standards developed by them tend to be ignored.