The European Experience in the Application of Standards and their Impact on International Trade

The article is aimed at generalizing the European Union’s experience in implementing standards and analyzing their impact on international trade. The European practice of application of technical regulations and standards is analyzed. The application of standards in international trade primarily provides the function of protecting the national market from the foreign unfair competitors. The European community has built its own two-tier system of technical regulation based on the New and Global approaches, which serve the purposes of free exchange within the EU, elimination of trade barriers, harmonization and mutual recognition of standards. It is impossible to assert unequivocally that standards have a positive or negative impact on international trade. On the one hand, their implementation can have a positive impact on the technologically advanced sectors, but at the same time negative impact on the commodity sector. That is why harmonization and mutual recognition of standards are essential because they can significantly reduce the negative impact on trade.