Plumbing Manufacturers International and the Canadian Institute of Plumbing and Heating announced a mutual effort to further advance the development of joint Canadian-United States plumbing standards. This effort will build upon work exploring the harmonization of standards and conformity assessment procedures initiated by the American National Standards Institute and the Standards Council of Canada.

Toward developing the concept of “one standard, one test/one scheme” throughout North America, CIPH and PMI have reached out to their respective memberships for input on specific U.S. and Canadian standards that generate duplication of effort and that could benefit from a joint U.S.-Canadian standard approach. “We asked our members to indicate the areas that would benefit from the publication of a single document for both countries that indicates compliance to ANSI and SCC requirements,” said Barbara C. Higgens, PMI CEO and executive director.

This stakeholder engagement in the design and implementation of harmonizing standards is vital, said Ralph Suppa, CAE, CIPH president and general manager. “Expressions such as ‘one standard, one test’ and ‘one audit accepted everywhere in North America’ are frequently used during meetings and conferences between government and industry; they reflect a strong stakeholder interest in pursuing more efficient approaches,” he stated.

Over the coming months, PMI and CIPH will communicate the input they receive from members to ANSI and SCC and explore how best to respond to member requests for joint Canada-U.S. standards. Results of this initiative will be shared with all stakeholders toward determining appropriate next steps for future joint U.S.-Canadian standards development activities.Standards and conformity assessment play a key role in supporting economic growth and in facilitating trade. Further cross-border standardization will enable both U.S. and Canadian industry to increase supply chain efficiencies and improve the competitiveness of their exports across the continent and around the world. Conversely, duplicative standards, testing and certification requirements within a regional market can act as barriers to trade, negatively impacting costs, productivity and competitiveness.

Canada and the United States have the largest and most comprehensive trading relationship in the world, supporting millions of jobs in each country. In 2014, trade of goods and services between Canada and the U.S. totaled nearly $600 billion CAD. In addition, trilateral trade between NAFTA partners (including Mexico) surpassed $1.1 trillion CAD