U.S.-Brazil Commercial Dialogue
U.S.-Brazil Commercial Dialogue
Standards Working Group
The Standards Working Group is a partnership between the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Brazil’s National Institute for Metrology, Quality and & Technology (INMETRO) to work together to increase understanding and cooperation on approaches to voluntary standards, technical regulation, and conformity assessment, as well as measurement science in a wide range of sectors including biofuels and aviation biofuels, biology and health care. Priority topics under the Standards Working Group include:
Sector Guides
Access to information about standards and regulatory requirements is an important tool for companies seeking to export. In 2012, NIST and INMETRO began to develop sector specific guides to provide the private sector better access to standards and regulatory requirements in each country. Completed guides include; for Brazil: toys, agricultural machinery, petroleum products and medical devices and for the U.S. (furniture, footwear, motor vehicle parts, apparel and textiles, and flat-rolled steel). In early 2016, NIST and INMETRO will complete updates to each of the guides. Currently, NIST and INMETRO are beginning work on developing standards and regulatory guides focused on the cosmetics market in both countries. The guides can be found at: http://gsi.nist.gov/global/index.cfm/L1-7/L2-35/A-630/.
World Trade Organization TBT Inquiry Point Cooperation
INMETRO and NIST are the official Brazilian and U.S. inquiry points for the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) of the WTO. In 2010 Brazil and the United States initiated a two-year program to share best practices for managing Inquiry Point services to help both countries’ national industries, especially small and medium sized enterprises, overcome technical barriers to commerce between Brazil and the United States. The two year program on Inquiry Point cooperation has resulted in several important outcomes. (1) The publication in January 2011 of the joint study on the “Economic Impact Assessments of USA and Brazil WTO TBT Inquiry Points”; (2) the development of industry sector guides on U.S. and Brazilian technical requirements for sectors of commercial interest to the two countries (described above); (3) in October 2012, a workshop held in Rio de Janeiro for the Inquiry Points of the Americas (including Caribbean countries) on operations of a national WTO TBT Inquiry Point and Notification Authority.
Biofuels
Representatives from NIST worked from 2009-2012 with biofuel experts from the United States, European Union, and Brazil, the world’s major producers of biofuels, to harmonize biofuel specifications among the three regions. Recognizing that many issues relating to variations in specifications that can be traced to different measurement procedures and methods, NIST and Brazil’s National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality (INMETRO) collaborated on the development of certified reference materials (CRMs) for biodiesel and bioethanol that have values assigned for the key chemical and physical properties. These CRMs are being disseminated throughout the world to be used by major producers of biofuels in their different measurement procedures and methods.
Smart Grid
NIST and INMETRO are also collaborating in the area of smart grid. NIST facilitated INMETRO’s participation in the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP). In 2015, NIST hosted a guest researcher from INMETRO focused on activities on cybersecurity for smart grid. In addition, in November 2015, a NIST researcher lectured at the SIM Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) Workshop and the 11th International Congress on Electrical Metrology (XI SEMETRO) at Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
The International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, manages this global trade site to provide access to ITA information on promoting trade and investment, strengthening the competitiveness of U.S. industry, and ensuring fair trade and compliance with trade laws and agreements. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein. This site contains PDF documents. A PDF reader is available from Adobe Systems Incorporated.