ISO+Trade+Standards

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is the world's largest developer and publisher of International Standards. ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 162 countries, one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system. ISO is a non-governmental organization that forms a bridge between the public and private sectors. On the one hand, many of its member institutes are part of the governmental structure of their countries, or are mandated by their government. On the other hand, other members have their roots uniquely in the private sector, having been set up by national partnerships of industry associations. Therefore, ISO enables a consensus to be reached on solutions that meet both the requirements of business and the broader needs of society."

In a sense ISO is similar to [|UN/CEFACT], with a more general purpose. Many UN/CEFACT standards have their basis in ISO. For example the UN Core Complenets Library (CCL) uses standards from the ISO Technical Committee ISO TC154. This group maintains the UN Trade Data Elements Directory (TDED) as well as the UN Core Components Technical Specifications (CCTS) 2.01.

//Source: [|ISO website]//