A new U.S. sponsored facility called the "Standards Alliance" will help build capacity among developing countries to implement standards and technical regulations on international trade.

A new U.S.-sponsored facility called the "Standards Alliance" will help build capacity among developing countries to implement standards and technical regulations on international trade.

Virginia Brown, director of the Office of Trade and Regulatory Reform of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), announced the new facility in Geneva on November 29. Brown is in Geneva as part of the U.S. delegation to the World Trade Organization Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade, led by Senior Director for Technical Barriers to Trade Julia Doherty from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).

The new Standards Alliance will help developing countries adopt globally recognized standards for products, and will assist those countries in clarifying and streamlining their regulatory processes for products. This will enable developing countries to improve the quality and safety of the products they export abroad, USTR said.

Standards and technical regulations are critical to global trade, USTR said.

Above, USAID's Brown and Doherty of USTR at the announcement.