[A2k] EU: Researcher hints at WTO conflict over ISO approval for OOXML

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7546/469

EU: Researcher hints at WTO conflict over ISO approval for OOXML
Open Source News - 27 March 2008 - EU and Europe-wide - General

The president of the European Academy for Standardisation, Tineke
Egyedi, criticises the International Standards Organisation ISO's fast-
track approval of OOXML, Microsoft's proposal for a standard for
electronic documents.

The ISO will at the end of this week decide whether or not to approve
OOXML as an ISO-standard.

Egyedi, a researcher of technical standards, at the Technical
University in Delft, the Netherlands, doubts whether ISO should have a
taken into consideration a second standard for electronic documents at
all. ISO approved the Open Document Format ODF in 2006, says Egyedi:
"What are we to do with a second standard, which is overlapping the
first? This conflicts with rules of the World Trade Organisation."

The standards specialist refers to the WTO Agreement on Technical
Barriers to Trade, which states that duplication or overlap should be
avoided.

Egyedi made her remarks last week, at the end of a public discussion
on OOXML, she organised for students at her University. During the
discussion, representatives of the Dutch government said that an
approval by the ISO would not automatically make OOXML ready for use
by the Dutch government. This would depend on whether or not OOXMl
would be approved by a government commission that sets standards for
public administration.


=A9 European Communities 2008
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
The views expressed are not an official position of the European
Commission.
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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997