ANSI Accredited U.S. Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) to ISO

ANSI promotes the use of U.S. standards internationally, advocates U.S. policy and technical positions in international and regional standards organizations, and encourages the adoption of international standards as national standards where they meet the needs of the user community.  

ANSI is the sole U.S. representative and dues-paying member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Through the Institute, the U.S. participates in almost the entire technical program of ISO and administers many key committees and subgroups. 

Part of ANSI’s responsibilities as the U.S. member body to the ISO includes accrediting U.S. Technical Advisory Groups (U.S. TAGs). The primary purpose of these groups is to develop and transmit, via ANSI, U.S. positions on activities and ballots of the Technical Committees (and as appropriate, Subcommittees and policy committees). These technical issues include the approval, reaffirmation, revision and withdrawal of ISO standards.

Applying for Accreditation

All U.S. TAGs to ISO must adhere to the procedural requirements contained in the ANSI Procedures for U.S. Participation in the International Standards Activities of ISO (ANSI International Procedures).

Persons interested in applying for accreditation must submit an Application for Accreditation of a U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ISO and Approval as TAG Administrator .

A group or organization wishing to serve as the U.S. TAG Administrator for a particular ISO TC or SC must also apply for ANSI Organizational Membership and agree to pay the associated fees for participating in the activity, as contained in the International Activity Assessment schedule on ANSI’s Organization Membership Application.

Please submit the application package, or any questions relating to accreditation, to ANSI’s Procedures & Standards Administration Department (psa@ansi.org ), Attention: Jim Thompson (e: jthompso@ansi.org ; 212.642.4913) or Anne Caldas (e: acaldas@ansi.org ; 212.642.4914).

NOTE: A separate accreditation process exists for Developers of American National Standards.

Maintaining Accreditation

Periodically, the PSA staff will issue to all ANSI-accredited TAGs a compilation of changes to the international procedures that have been approved by the Institute’s Board of Directors. This will usually take the form of a revised set of procedures.

Accompanying these revisions will be a compliance form that must be signed and returned to the PSA Department after a review of the revisions and comparison with the TAG’s accredited procedures. The compliance form will specify a date by which all ANSI-accredited TAGs must be in full compliance with the approved revisions.

In order for the developers of American National Standards to be aware of any changes that may be in progress, it is recommended that these developers regularly visit the ANSI Online Public Document Library, which contains information concerning procedural changes under consideration by the Executive Standards Council (ExSC), those undergoing public review (which are also published in Standards Action), and those recently approved by the Board of Directors.

Reading the documents under public review also affords ANSI-accredited SDOs the best opportunity to make their opinions about proposed changes known to the ExSC.