ANSI International Procedures
B4.1 Openness.
Participation shall be open to all U.S. national interested parties who are directly and materially affected by the activity in question. There shall be no undue financial barriers to participation. Participation shall not be conditional upon membership in any organization, or unreasonably restricted on the basis of technical qualifications or other such requirements.
Timely and adequate notice of the formation of new activities related to international standards shall be provided to all known directly and materially affected interests. Notice should include a clear and meaningful description of the purpose of the proposed activity and shall identify a readily available source for further information15.
In addition, the member’s name (or if membership is by organization, the name of the organization with a point of contact), affiliation16 and interest category of each member of the TAG shall be made available to interested parties upon request.
B4.2 Balance.
The process of developing U.S. positions shall provide an opportunity for fair and equitable participation without dominance by any single interest.
Dominance means a position or exercise of dominant authority, leadership, or influence by reason of superior leverage, strength, or representation. The requirement implicit in the phrase “without dominance by any single interest” normally will be satisfied if a reasonable balance among interests can be achieved. Unless it is claimed by a directly and materially affected person (organization, company, government agency, individual, etc.) that a single interest category dominated the development of the U.S. position, no test for dominance is required.
Interest categories shall be discretely defined, cover all materially affected parties and differentiate each category from the other categories. Such definitions shall be available upon request. In defining the interest categories appropriate to a standards activity, consideration shall be given to at least the following:
- Producer
- User
- General interest
Where appropriate, more detailed subdivisions should be considered17.
15 See also related notification requirements in 2.5 of the ANSI Essential Requirements with respect to candidate standards that may be submitted for approval as an ISO or ISO/IEC JTC-1 standard.
16 “Affiliation” refers to the entity that the U.S. TAG member represents (which may or may not be that person’s employer). If the TAG member is serving in an individual capacity, then the name of the individual, that person’s employer (if employed), sponsor (if other than employer) and interest category should be available. Contact information is not required.
17 Further subdivisions that may be used to categorize directly and materially affected persons consist of, but are not limited to, the following:
Consumer
Directly affected public
Distributor and retailer
Industrial/Commercial
Insurance
Labor Manufacturer
Professional society
Regulatory agency
Testing Laboratory
Trade association