Organizational Forms of Private Standards-Setting Trade
associations are probably the best known and the least trusted
form of private standards-setting. Since trade associations are
created to advance the interests of their (usually homogeneous)
memberships, it is widely assumed that their standards will be
anticompetitive or otherwise against the public interest. But
only some trade association standards have significant
implications for the public interest. Most facilitate commerce
in a rather mundane fashion. The Diamond Walnut Growers, for
example, develop standards for the size, color, and grade
defects for in-shell walnuts. Other trade associations develop a
full array of such relatively innocuous standards. The American
Petroleum Institute, for example, maintains 350 standards
concerning the transportation, refining, production,
measurement, and marketing of petroleum products. Trade
association standards are usually financed directly by the
membership, reinforcing the concern that narrow private inte