File Photo: World Bank. Photo: AFP
In its World Development Report 2025: Standards for Development, the Bank argues that standards have become core economic infrastructure, “as vital to prosperity as roads or ports,” and now underpin everything from trade to safety to digital connectivity. The report highlights how the standardization of the shipping container alone boosted global trade more than all trade agreements signed in the past six decades.
But it also warns that standards have increasingly become tools in global trade disputes. Non-tariff measures such as pesticide limits, testing rules, and labeling requirements now influence 90 percent of global trade, up from just 15 percent in the late 1990s.
“Standards are both central and unsung today,” said Indermit Gill, Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics. “When set right, they go unnoticed. The standardized shipping container might well have catalyzed more trade than all the trade deals put together. Digital standards could do the same for services. This report is a call to developing nations to treat standards as a core pillar of their development strategies.”
Sergio Mujica, Secretary-General of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), described the Bank’s decision to focus its flagship report on standards as a “powerful signal,” stressing that international norms are “critical enablers of sustainable, inclusive development.” He added that ensuring all countries can participate in shaping standards is essential to unlocking their full development impact.
According to the report, global demand for standards has surged in recent decades. More than half of ISO’s 20,000 standards have been issued since 2000, and more than 7,000 new standards were issued in 2024 alone. Yet developing countries remain underrepresented in the bodies that set them, participating in less than a third of the technical committees that shape global norms.
The report argues that countries need a deliberate strategy to leverage standards for development, proposing an “adapt–align–author” approach. At early stages of development, countries should adapt international standards to local conditions rather than copying stringent global norms that exceed domestic capacity. As capacity grows, they can begin aligning with global standards to reduce duplication and support export competitiveness. Ultimately, more advanced developing countries should aim to author standards that influence global markets.
Japan offers a powerful example, the report notes. Once known for unreliable, low-quality exports in the post-war period, Japan transformed itself into a global quality leader by systematically adopting and improving standards through the Japanese Standards Association and Total Quality Management.
“The lesson from the most successful economies is that standards are not just technical rules, they are the foundation for innovation and global competitiveness,” said Xavier Giné, Director of the 2025 World Development Report. “Countries that integrate standards into their development strategies are the ones that manage to climb the ladder of prosperity.”
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