United States Standards Strategy
A Revision of the National Standards Strategy for the United States

Overview and History Frequently Asked Questions Media Resources Implementation Assignments   Implementation Tracking System View Results   Support and/or Endorsement Tracking System View Results

Multi-language versions of the United States Standards Strategy English (.pdf) English (.doc) Spanish (.doc) Chinese – Mandarin (.pdf)

Overview

United States Standards Strategy establishes a framework that can be used by all interested parties to further advance trade issues in the global marketplace, enhance consumer health and safety, meet stakeholder needs and, as appropriate, advance U.S. viewpoints in the regional and international arena.

History and Background

United States Standards Strategy (USSS) was published in December 2005.

The Strategy was developed over a 20-month period through the coordinated efforts of a large and diverse group of constituents representing stakeholders in government, industry, standards developing organizations, consortia, consumer groups, and academia. The participants were committed to developing the Strategy in a way that will benefit the nation and the international community, and the efforts to do so shall be open, balanced and achieved through a transparent and participatory process. The result is a document that represents the vision of a broad cross-section of standards stakeholders and that reflects the diversity of the U.S. standards system.

The USSS is a revision of the National Standards Strategy for the United States (NSS) that was approved in August 2000. The first NSS reaffirmed that the U.S. is committed to a sector-based approach to voluntary standardization activities, both domestically and globally. It established a standardization framework that was built upon the traditional strengths of the U.S. system — such as consensus, openness and transparency — while giving additional emphasis to speed, relevance, and meeting the needs of public interest constituencies. Strategic and tactical initiatives contained within this framework were developed so that they could then be used by diverse interests to meet their own national and individual organizational objectives.

As called for in the first NSS, ANSI tracked implementation efforts and provided a mechanism for coordinating, integrating, and reporting progress. In early 2004, the Institute convened the United States Standards Strategy Committee to determine whether the NSS needed to be revised to reflect current issues and anticipated trends; several subgroups were created for the purpose of advancing particular aspects of the project. Participation in the subgroups was open to all interested parties from the United States.

The members of the USSSC gratefully acknowledge the contributions of everyone who assisted in the development of the final text of the United States Standards Strategy.