Product Standards in Transatlantic Trade and Investment: Domestic and International Practices and Institutions

Tim Buthe, Duke University as Assistant Professor of Political Science, and Jan Martin Witte, Ph.D. Candidate at the European Studies Department of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, the Johns Hopkins University

8/29/2008
(Original Publish Date: 10/1/2003)

Standards play a crucial—if often overlooked—role in firms and in the economy at large, reducing transaction costs; enabling economies of scale; facilitating quality control; and ensuring employee, consumer, and environmental protection. At the same time, cross-nationally divergent product standards have emerged as one of the most prominent non-tariff barriers to trade over the past twenty years, and political economists and policymakers are also beginning to recognize their importance for foreign direct investment (FDI).