More safety-focused background information
In 1947, 23 countries cooperated to sign and promulgate the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) aimed at establishing smooth international trade. Thereafter, in the 1994 GATT Uruguay Round, the parties agreed to amend the agreement to clarify and strengthen their respective responsibilities. In the same year, the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) was prepared. The following year, the WTO (World Trade Organization), the international organization responsible for the preparation of the TBT Agreement, was established to achieve free trade. Therefore, the TBT Agreement was incorporated into the WTO Agreement and collectively expressed as the "WTO/TBT Agreement". According to the requirements of this WTO/TBT Agreement, member states should develop standards (eg mandatory standards, voluntary standards) and establish conformity assessment processes by integrating such standards with international standards (eg ISO and IEC standards).
Reasons for adopting ISO/IEC standards
If machines and equipment comply with ISO/IEC standards, it is often possible to comply with the technical standards of individual countries, thus increasing the universality of machines and equipment around the world and thus reducing the restrictions on world trade. (The above is also an interpretation of this principle, since the specific requirements of each country are also recognized.)
Memorabilia
*1 IEC 61508...Functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety-related systems
*2 ISO 12100-1/2...Basic Concepts and Design Principles for Safety of Machinery - Part 1: Basic Terminology, Methodology and Part 2: Technical Principles
· *3 ISO 13849-1:2006...Safety-related parts of control systems - Part 1: General design principles
*4 ISO 12100:2010...a standard that integrates but does not change the technical details of the ISO 12100 series (established in 2003) and ISO 14121-1 (established in 2007)
*5 ISO 13855:2010... Guard positioning in relation to approach speed of body parts
