American body unveils directory to help exporters

Ahmedabad, Feb 10 (PTI) In a bid to help exporters ofIndia and the US gain access to each other''s markets, aprivate American institute today unveiled a directorydeveloped in association with the Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS) and top industry body CII.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI)''sdirectory, available in electronic form, covers five sectors.

"The directory highlights the technical requirementsas applicable in the US market for five sectors - informationtechnology, telecom, petroleum, water purification andconstruction equipment," Leslie McDermott, Program Director(International Development), ANSI, said here.

"Efforts are on to add more sectors to it as we moveahead. Penultimate goal of ANSI is to have one universalstandard for each sector so as to avoid multiplicity ofstandards."

The directory shall help exporters do business in theUS, she said, adding some American agencies are offeringprogrammes that enable the exporters adapt to these standards.

A link of the directory is available on Sarthi, theCII standards portal that facilitates international trade.

ANSI is a private sector entity that serves as anumbrella organisation for the US standards and conformancesystem. It represents more than 125,000 companies and groupsand 3.5 billion professional worldwide.

"The portal''s (directory) objective is to improvemarket access for US and Indian industries by sharinginformation on standards regulatory requirements andfacilitating cooperation between two sides," Chairman CIIGujarat State Council Yantindra Sharma said. (More) PTI VKB PDRSY