SDOs influence all aspects of trade.
Shivakumar 22 – Director and Senior Fellow of the Renewing American Innovation Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, former Director of the Innovation Policy Forum at the National Academies of Sciences, PhD in Economics from George Mason University.
Sujai Shivakumar, “Securing Global Standards for Innovation and Growth,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, 01-27-2022, https://www.csis.org/analysis/securing-global-standards-innovation-and-growth
Standards are indispensable to innovation, providing shared platforms for industry participants to work together to bring new technological solutions to the marketplace. Securing the integrity of fair and broad-based frameworks that establish accurate and workable standards for technology adoption and interoperability is therefore critical for accelerating innovation and promoting fair global competition in all fields essential to commerce.
At the same time, the development and adoption of one set of standards over another can confer advantages to particular firms and national economies. For some technologies, the selection of a given standard often determines whose product will succeed in global markets. As explained in a recent Wall Street Journal article, “whoever has control of industrial norms for telecommunications, electricity transmission and artificial intelligence is in a position to dominate.” Alternatively, doubts about the fairness and quality of standards—or a bifurcation in the framework within which standards are developed—can disrupt technological development and negatively impact economic growth and innovation-driven improvements in consumer welfare.