One standards body with an eye on the international market is ASTM International. ASTM was originally founded in 1898 as the American Section of the International Association for Testing Materials and later became known as the American Society for Testing and Materials. In 2001, it renamed itself ASTM International to reflect its international standards development process, global membership and worldwide application and use of its standards.

According to John Pace, vice president of publications and marketing for ASTM International, the worldwide demand for ASTM's offerings is significant and growing. "We do business in over 110 countries, and close to 45 percent of our revenues come from markets outside the U.S." He goes on to point out that technical experts from approximately 120 countries actively participate in ASTM's standards development processes.

While based in the United States, ASTM is far from being American-centric. "ASTM's standards are not American, they are international," John says. "They play in all markets around the world." To support this trend, the organization has established offices in Mexico and China.

In fact, more than 3,000 different ASTM standards have been nationally adopted or referenced by some 70 countries worldwide. Furthermore, in many countries, ASTM standards are the second most widely used after those developed by the countries' own national standards organizations.

To increase coordination between national standards bodies and ASTM, in 2001 ASTM established its memoranda of understanding (MOU) program, which is designed to provide technical assistance to developing countries worldwide. Through the MOU program, ASTM provides its standards freely to national standards bodies for their internal use in developing their own national standards.

According to the ASTM website, the MOUs "are designed to encourage, increase and facilitate the participation of technical experts from around the world in the ASTM standards development process and broaden the global acceptance and use of ASTM International standards." In the past five years, ASTM has signed MOUs with 47 countries in all regions of the world.

Kitty Kono, vice president of global cooperation for ASTM explains, "As a benefit of the MOU program, technical experts from any of the countries where MOUs have been signed can participate freely as full voting members in the ASTM standards development process."

This global emphasis easily fits with ASTM's mission as an international standards developing organization. Rather than focus on a specific geographic area, ASTM is more interested in responding to its members' demand for support in areas in which it has long been strong, such as petroleum, metals, paints, plastics and concrete. It is also increasing its presence in emerging markets that Pace says have seen little standards activity. These include medical devices, nanotechnology, light sport aircraft, homeland security and hazardous materials.

To further increase its worldwide presence, ASTM recently hired two international sales directors who are charged with the task of building the organization's relationships around the world. In addition, ASTM is ramping up its translation activities, particularly in areas in which its standards have been incorporated into non-English-speaking countries' codes or laws.

All these activities are designed to raise awareness of ASTM as an international organization that is meeting a worldwide need. "We don't focus on any one geography," says Pace. "We want to help with whatever our members and customers need from us for standardization support."

For more information about ASTM International, please visit: http://engineers.ihs.com/collections/astm/index.jsp