Transatlantic Harmonisation of Standards and Conformity Assessment - A Business Pertspective

Systems for technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment differ between the United States and the European Union. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership TTIP should align the systems at both sides of the Atlantic but is this feasible? This paper tries to answer this question based on the experiences of six case companies in the machine industry that are active at both markets. Which differences do they encounter? How do they cope with this? Which problems need to be solved? What can be done to do so? Findings show that better alignment is possible but full alignment is not realistic and some proposals make the situation worse rather than better. This study differs from previous research by taking a business perspective. The approach can be used in other parts of the world as well