Op-Ed Contributors

Respect differences in standardization

By Dieter Ernst (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-24 07:56

As for China's standardization strategy, it is viewed in the US as a critical weapon of China's "neo-mercantilist policies" to keep US companies at bay.

Perceptions in China are very different. China's leadership considers the American critique of its innovation policy to be unfair and hypocritical, and suspects that the US tries to contain China's rise.

From the Chinese perspective, reducing the dependence on manufactured exports will only be possible if China succeeds in strengthening its domestic innovative capacity. To achieve this objective, China seeks to upgrade its standards system to lessen the control of foreign advanced countries over China, especially in the area of high and new technology and increase the effectiveness of Chinese technical standards as important protective measures or barriers to relieve the adverse impact of foreign products on China's market.

A document issued by the Standards Administration of China says Beijing's standardization strategy needs to fill a policy vacuum because its accession commitments to the World Trade Organization have substantially reduced the use of most other trade restrictions such as tariffs, import quotas and licensing requirements.

China seeks to develop a "two-track" approach. On one hand, it is working within the international system with the long-term goal of creating patent worthy technology essential to global standards, and by including Chinese technology into global standards, China seeks to strengthen its bargaining power and reduce its exposure to high royalty fees. On the other hand, China seeks to use its increasing geopolitical influence to promote new sets of rules for international standardization and, hence, to transform the international standards system.

On a global scale, this process is still in the initial stages. But there is little doubt that, in the medium term, China is going to change not only the international approach toward standardization, but also the rules of broader frameworks that govern international trade. The emergence of common global challenges like climate change create conflict and negotiation frameworks with dynamically changing alliances, wherein several sub-systems (including standardization, intellectual property rights and trade rules) are exposed to strong scrutiny and where the status quo may no longer be sustainable.

In short, there are vastly different perceptions in the US and China of what constitutes legitimate goals of innovation and standards policy. A proper analysis is needed to help avoid a vicious circle of escalating trade conflicts and regulatory confrontations between the US and China, where each country's public posture on innovation and standardization will increasingly harden, while frantic negotiations try to mitigate the damage in the background.

The author is a senior fellow and professor at East-West Center, Honolulu, US.

(China Daily 11/24/2010 page9)