Textiles and Infrastructure Materials

The free trade agreement between the United States and countries in Central America - Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua - as well as the Dominican Republic, promotes trade and investment among the signers. Goods trade between the United States and these countries has grown from $35 billion in 2005 to $60 billion in 2013.¹

The CAFTA-DR signers have also signed memorandums of understanding with ASTM. These standards organizations have consulted or cited close to 2,300 ASTM standards - including many standards for steel, hydraulic cement, concrete and concrete pipe - as a normative reference, regulatory reference, the basis for a national standard.

Last year, for example, El Salvador's standards body adopted 20 standards focusing on concrete, steel, masonry and pipe. And, Dominican Republic standards call out ASTM standards for liquefied petroleum gas, typically used for heating and cooking, as well as standards for hydraulic cement and concrete. Other successes include these:

Textiles and Apparel

Textiles and apparel in the CAFTA-DR region are important both for foreign trade and adding jobs. Notably, the region is the second largest supplier for U.S. markets.²

Requirements for exporting to the United States include compliance with ASTM standards such as the test for flammability for children's sleepwear. This and other ASTM standards were covered in a June workshop held in Guatemala City, Guatemala. One of the presenters, consultant Robert Holcombe, discussed various ASTM textile standards, including warp and yarn count, tear strength and weight: "These are a combination of construction characteristics as well as performance standards."

Costa Rica and INTECO

The Instituto de Normas Tecnicas de Costa Rica, or INTECO became the national standards body for Costa Rica in 1995. Of the more than 780 ASTM standards that have been adopted, consulted, referenced or used as the basis for a Costa Rican national standard, many come from construction-related committees.

As part of the MOU, INTECO's Francesca Rappaccioli came to ASTM in June to participate in the Standards Expert Program. Rappaccioli is an industrial engineer; she coordinates the organization's standardization process. Rappaccioli says, "Costa Rica is a country that believes in quality," a system that consists of accreditation, metrology, standards and regulation. Currently, INTECO is responsible for 1,075 standards.

Cement and concrete are important materials in Costa Rica, and national standards in this industry guarantee a good quality of materials and a fair trade between materials from different countries. That's according to Irene Campos, executive director of the Cement and Concrete Institute of Costa Rica (ICCYC). She adds that ICCYC may directly cite the ASTM standards or the Costa Rican standards as based on ASTM standards, in addition to the country's own documents. "We also use the ASTM standards for laboratory tests," she says.

For more information about the ASTM MOU program, visit the Global Cooperation page of ASTM's website.

References

1. Office of the United States Trade Representative, "CAFTA-DR (Dominican Republic-Central America FTA)"

2. Central America – Dominican Republic Apparel and Textile Council, "Textile and Apparel Industry"