Why international environmental management standards?
There are many forces that have contributed to the movement for common worldwide environmental management standards. Global environmental problems, regulatory differences between nationals, trade agreements, multi-national companies, and consumer demand for environmental friendly products are just a few. Consumer demand for environmentally friendly products in Europe and more restrictive product laws in some European countries have in some cases amounted to non-tariff trade barriers. U.S. participation in the development of international standards will help to insure that these European markets remain open to our exports. Depending upon who’s doing the estimating, the environmental regulatory burden on the U.S. gross national product is anywhere from 3% to 8%. This places U.S. companies at a tremendous disadvantage when competing against products from countries without such regulatory burdens. This is fueling the current political trend towards deregulation in the U.S. For industry, th
