Normalization as an element of competitiveness and export potential

The Spanish technical standards catalogue contains over 31.000 standards, half a million pages, most of them in Spanish. Virtually every sector finds in technical standards the good practice accepted by the market, for many elements relevant for competitiveness. They are internationally accepted documents that facilitate access to markets, provide quality and safety assurance, and meet legal obligations in a global environment. This is one of the main contributions of the Spanish Association for Standardization and Certification, an organization founded in 1986 when the standardization activity moved from the public sector to a non-profit entity, in which the private sector could drive and support this activity. (Author)