US Should Adopt International Automobile Standards

Every developed country in the world, apart from Canada and the United States, currently allows cars that meet UNECE standards to be sold in their countries.  Germany, Spain, Japan, Russia, Australia, Korea, the United Kingdom – all of them follow the same requirements.  Canada will likely be joining these countries in 2015.  The United States should too.

The UNECE is the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.  In 1952, it established the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations.  By 1958 there was an agreement.  Cars that met the new standards could be sold in all member countries.  A Peugeot sold in France could be sold in Italy without any modifications.  A Fiat sold in Italy could be sold in Germany without any modifications, and so on. 

Since that time, more and more countries have joined the agreement so that now there are essentially just three types of cars for sale in developed countries: left-side steering-wheel cars that meet the UN standards, right-side steering-wheel cars that meet the UN standards, and cars sold in the US and Canada that meet the US standards.

Canada is planning to allow cars that meet UN or US standards to be sold there.  That’s a smart move.  Canadians will have a wider opportunity to buy the car that best fits their needs.  Better yet, car prices should come down because cars imported to Canada won’t have to be modified from the versions sold in the countries where the cars were produced.

The US could follow Canada’s lead and realize the same advantages.  However, it would be even more cost effective to eliminate the US standards altogether and simply to allow any car to be sold here that meets the standards set by UNECE.  Eliminate the bureaucracy.  Eliminate the red tape.  Eliminate the expense.  If the cars are considered safe by the rest of the world, they ought to be safe here too.  This change would not only benefit car consumers world-wide by lowering production costs, it would increase sales.  Increased sales mean more profit and more jobs - an economic boost all the way around.

Adopting the UN standards doesn’t just make economic sense, it’s also a matter of personal liberty.  If our laws allow a guy to put a helmet on his 12 year-old son and take off with him on a motorcycle, then I think the guy should have the right drive the kid around in a UN-standards VW.

There are a few areas where the US standards may be a bit more stringent than the UN’s.  However, all cars are much safer today than even twenty years ago.  A slight lowering of our standards will have minimal effect.  And if certain customers are willing to pay more for additional safety features, manufacturers will surely include them just as they do now.

There’s no point in maintaining an entire regulatory apparatus to do something that's already being done.  It only creates more expense for our government, for our automobile manufacturers, and for the American consumer.  The United States should discontinue creating and monitoring its own set of automobile standards and adopt the same standards as the rest of the developed world.