China needs to increase its presence in international standardization forums to be able to influence the development of international standards, the president of a leading world standardization organization said in Beijing on Thursday.

James A. Thomas, president of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International, said at the meeting of the ASTM International Board of Directors that ASTM is encouraging more Chinese experts to take part in standard development work.

"As tariffs recede, there are concerns that standards could become a new form of trade barrier," Thomas said during an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

"Standard could be used to prevent a product from entering a market, or to give one company or one region of the world an advantage over another," Thomas said.

"I think businesses are now very concerned about the content of standards, and what technology is contained in a standard, and how that standard will be used to either encourage trade or prevent trade," he said.

Established in 1898, ASTM International is one of the largest standards development and delivery systems in the world. ASTM standards are accepted and used in R&D, product testing, quality systems, and commercial transactions around the world.

This is the first time the ASTM board has met in China. ASTM develops standards in over 90 industrial sectors, focusing particularly on steel, plastics, petroleum, the environment, the medical sector, textiles and consumer products such as toys.

The organization has 24,000 volunteer technical experts from 125 countries working on standards development.

"Today we have only 200 Chinese experts working on ASTM committees. We would like to have many more Chinese experts, because we believe that if we have a representation from Chinese experts, the standards produced by ASTM will be of higher quality, and they will also reflect the market needs of China," Thomas said.

"China is the world's third largest merchandise trader, and nearly 500 ASTM standards are used as the basis of national standards in China," said Thomas, adding that 12,000 standards have been published by ASTM worldwide.

Earlier this year, a China-made wireless encryption system standard was rejected by the International Standardization Organization (ISO) under the influence of the U.S. government who saw the system as a rival to American technology.

Commenting on the issue, Thomas said that ASTM does not have standards in that field. But he said the key to success in the standard decision system is participation.

"To achieve success in the international standard forum, China has to take part," Thomas added.

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2006)