Standards: A Tool for Global Influence with Contested Leadership
For two decades, China has been methodically climbing the ranks of international standardization, integrating this tool as a central lever of its industrial strategy. In doing so, it is outpacing players that have historically held strong positions among the top five countries in voluntary standard-setting, including France. AFNOR’s 2026 International Barometer presents this new ranking, highlighting the need to raise awareness among French companies about the importance of getting involved in standardization through AFNOR: if they don’t write the rules, others will!
Quality and performance
China: Steady and Strategic Growth
The 2026 International Barometer AFNOR’s report highlights China’s momentum in global standard-setting forums. Within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a major body, China rose to second place worldwide in terms of the number of technical committees for which it held the secretariat as of December 31, 2025, tied with the United States and behind Germany. When averaged with its ranking in the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), China ranks fifth, just behind France and Japan. This aggressive strategy is no accident. It allows China to directly influence future industrial and commercial rules of the game. This positioning stems from an ambitious national policy: to transform voluntary standards into weapons for global economic conquest.
France's goal: to maintain its position in the top 5 at the ISO
As a result, France is losing ground on the podium. However, in this ranking, France remains among the top 5 leading countries and holds its position, neck and neck with Japan: in 2025, it will reclaim 4th place from Japan in the ISO rankings. It was 5th in 2024, as we explained here . Note: As of December 31, 2025, since China and the United States were tied for second place, France can be ranked third on the ISO podium. With 82 committees led by AFNOR—three more than in 2024—France, through AFNOR, has reached a number never before achieved since the creation of this ranking. This momentum must be maintained!
Changes in the number of secretariats for standards committees held at ISO by the six leading countries over a ten-year period:
At ISO, France, through AFNOR, has taken the lead—a role confirmed in 2025—on a number of cross-cutting issues related to management and corporate social responsibility:
New Committee on Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities
- New Event Planning Committee , including sustainable event planning
- appointment as chair (via Renault) of the Quality Management Committee, which oversees the well-known ISO 9001 standard
- appointment as chair (through the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research) of the mining committee.
Similarly, in the agri-food sector, for example, France is a leading player in international standardization, accounting for 17% of the responsibilities (2023 data). In 2025, it strengthened its position by taking the lead in a committee on the sensory and organoleptic analysis of products. China, which was still on par with France in 2022, continues to make progress but remains, for now, in second place.
This is not the case in the field of transportation and logistics: China, which is taking a very aggressive approach, is hot on the heels of Germany and the United States, with France ranking fourth among the most active countries in this field (2023 data). In March 2025, Beijing assumed the chairmanship of an ISO subcommittee dedicated to ports and terminals. This move is fully in line with the New Silk Roads initiative, where standardization is becoming a tool for economic and geopolitical influence. Recognizing the need to stay engaged, France assumed the chairmanship of an ISO committee on rail infrastructure in 2025.
Good news: France is holding its own in the highly specialized yet strategic field of electrical technologies. At the IEC, it ranks third—behind Germany and the United States—in terms of the number of committees it chairs. China ranks only sixth but is gaining ground, having already surpassed Italy. At the European level, the situation is more reassuring: France, again through AFNOR, retains second place at CEN and CENELEC—a position it has held for about fifteen years—behind Germany and ahead of the United Kingdom and Italy.
Set the rules of the game so you don't have to play by them
This new international landscape underscores the urgency of preserving some form of sovereignty. France must not slip from being an influential player to a mere follower within the bodies where tomorrow’s standards are defined. More broadly, Europe must fight to retain this instrument of soft power, in line with the European standardization strategy of February 2022 championed by former European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton. The French Standardization Strategy 2025–2030 outlines this vision. Here are the five key priorities that stem from it:
- Systematically incorporate standardization into sector strategies and industrial policies.
- To actively engage French companies in the standards-setting process on a large scale.
- To train a new generation of experts capable of defending our interests in international forums.
- View standardization as a means of accelerating the ecological and digital transitions.
- Strengthen coordination between public and private stakeholders to promote a coherent French vision.
