19 U.S.C. § 2532 — Federal standards-related activities

A Federal agency may not conduct a standards-related activity that creates an unnecessary obstacle to United States foreign commerce. This includes violating these requirements: (1) Nondiscriminatory treatment. For standards activities involving an imported product, the agency must treat it at least as favorably as like domestic or imported products. This applies to accepting it for comparable testing, administering comparable tests, charging test fees, releasing results to exporters, importers, or agents, locating testing facilities, selecting samples, and handling confidential product information. (2) International standards. When developing standards, each agency must consider international standards and, when appropriate, base its standards on them. This does not require using a standard when that would be inappropriate. Reasons may include national security, preventing deceptive practices, protecting human health or safety, animal or plant life or health, or the environment, fundamental climate or geographic factors, and fundamental technology problems. An agency may consider a regional international standard issued by an organization described in section 2571(6)(A)(ii), but is not required to do so. (3) Performance criteria. When appropriate, each agency must base standards on performance criteria, such as intended use and the performance required under defined conditions, rather than design criteria, such as physical form or material type. (4) Foreign suppliers. For each conformity-assessment procedure it uses, an agency must give foreign suppliers access to an assessment and, if applicable, the system’s mark on the same basis it gives access to suppliers of like domestic or foreign products.