Standards agreement between China and Australia

Standards Australia have signed an agreement with their Chinese equivalent, the Standardization Administration of China:

Standards Australia and China's peak standards development organisation have signed a major international covenant ensuring future standards development in each country will not stand in the way of free trade...

Under the agreement, Australia and China's peak standards development bodies will:

• Notify each other of the Standards that may cause significant influences on the trade between both countries;
• Exchange national Standards catalogues, information and experiences on standardisation;
• Provide advice on technical regulations;
• Engage in expert visits and academic exchange;
• Carry out joint Standards research projects; and
• Collaborate in dealing with international Standards organisations....

From: New agreement to help Australian business trade with China, Standards Australia MEDIA RELEASE March 22, 2007

SA is a non-for-profit Australian company, while SAC is an agency of the Chinese Government. They represent their respective countries at bodies such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC):

Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China (SAC) is authorized by the State Council and under the control of AQSIQ to exercise the administrative functions and carry out centralized administration for standardization in China. While relevant competent administrative departments of the State Council shall be assigned the responsibility of managing the work of standardization within their respective professional sectors. The competent administrative bureaus of standardization in the provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities, cities and counties shall execute unified administration of the work of standardization in their respective administrative regions. The provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities, cites and counties are also setting standardization departments in their governments. The SAC execute business administration of those province-level bureaus of technical supervision and execute directive administration in the system of under province-level bureau of technical supervision.

From: Standardization Administration of China, Chinese National Committee of the ISO/IEC

ps: I represent the Australian Computer Society on the SA Council.