International standardization

International standardization in all fields, with the exception of the technology for electricity and electronics which is under the responsibility of IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), is conducted in ISO (International Standardization Organisation). ISO is a world-wide federation of national standards organizations of about 130 countries, with one organization per country. The official languages in ISO are English and French. Technical work is carried out in about 185 Technical Committees and 570 sub-committees whose technical secretariats are held by 41 countries. For some subjects for which the two organizations (ISO and IEC) are concerned (e.g. electrical steels), joint technical committees can be established. The drafts of International Standards are submitted to several processing stages and particularly to an enquiry on a draft (called ISO/DIS), which lasts 5 months, and to a formal vote (non-weighted) on a final draft (called ISO/FDIS). In June 1991, ISO and CEN signed an agreement, called Vienna agreement for the liaison, the cooperation and the exchange of information between the two organizations. This agreement principally aims at avoiding, as far as possible, the duplication of standardization works within the two organizations. Two types of documents can be published by ISO : - International Standards (ISO), - Technical Reports (TR), - and since a little time publicly available specifications (PAS), technical specifications (TS) or Industrial Technical Agreements (ITA) prepared out of standardization bodies (TCs or SCs). At the end of 2000, about 13 000 International Standards were published. BN ACIER is involved in the follow up of International standardization works carried out in a few ISO or technical committees in the case where the standardization works either concern or are directly related to the steel products and the processed products.