According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the United States' trade and investment relationship with the countries of Europe is the largest and most complex in the world. The member states of the European Union (EU) collectively represent a market of nearly 500 million consumers. Two-way U.S.-EU trade has been roughly balanced over time and the very high levels of foreign investment accounted for by each in the other's markets means that the transatlantic economy is arguably the most integrated on Earth.
ANSI maintains active relationships with its counterparts in Europe, including the European Standards Organizations (ESOs). In addition, ANSI and the ESO’s cooperate with the U.S. government, European Commission, and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) to lead the U.S.-EU standards and conformance interaction.
In an effort to strengthen transatlantic collaboration on standards, conformance, and market access issues, ANSI and the three ESOs — the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) signed a document detailing the ANSI-ESO Principles of Cooperation on August, 2018. ANSI and the ESOs are now discussing the development of a Joint Paper on Shared Principles with the objective of helping stakeholders understand both systems better and thus be a stepping-stones to improved market access.
ANSI and the ESOs also seek to organized meetings approximately every two years, intended to strengthen collaboration and harmonization of standards development. With the last meeting taking place in November 2025 in Washington D.C.
ANSI and its members also work closely together to monitor European Polices that may impact standardization via the International Policy Advisory Group (IPAG). Recently, ANSI has shared several comments to the European Commission around the revision of EC Regulation 1025/2012 which codifies standardization for the European Union.
An example of the close cooperation that ANSI carries out with its European counterparts is the work done with Germany. ANSI and the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) host collaborative sessions approximately every two years on relevant, cutting edge topics. The most recent events include:
