Standards Expert Joins U.S. Mission to the European Union

The Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology has recommended Helen Davis Delaney to the U.S. Commercial Service for the position of standards officer at the United States Mission to the European Union, Brussels.

Delaney will report to government and private-sector interests on standards-related developments within the EU. She also will help manufacturers and exporters obtain information on EU directives and standards that may affect U.S. exports to the European Union. Delaney joined the U.S. Commercial Service in September 1995. Her assignment to the USEU Mission was made under the terms of a memorandum between NIST and the Commercial Service, a unit of DoC's International Trade Administration. The memorandum covers formal and working relationships between the agencies for the assignment of standards experts to selected U.S. embassies and missions to achieve common goals concerning standards and exports. The position at the Brussels post was established in 1992.

The European Union is the largest trading partner of the United States at more than $210 billion annually. U.S. exports to the EU in 1994 amounted to approximately $102.8 billion, and U.S. imports from the EU were approximately $110.8 billion.

The European Union's Single Market is looked upon as an opportunity for U.S. business. The U.S. Department of Commerce has made product standards, testing and certification a top priority with the EU in recognition of U.S. industry's concerns that the harmonization of several thousand EU product standards could become EU-wide non-tariff barriers to trade.

The selection of Delaney for the position in Brussels is part of a NIST standards program to help commercial service counselors in foreign embassies and missions with their efforts to assist U.S. companies overcome specific standards-related non-tariff trade barriers. NIST has operated such a program in Saudi Arabia for more than five years.

Delaney has been active in domestic and international standards activities for more than 23 years. She was the general manager of the Washington, D.C., office of the American Society for Testing and Materials and also served as ASTM's Director of Global Affairs. She started a private consulting service in 1989 with ASTM as a principal client. Her extensive experience with the private standards development community will aid her in work at the mission.

Helen Davis Delaney, a native of Philadelphia, is a resident of Bethesda, Md. She will be joined in Brussels by her husband, William, who retired recently from the real estate department of AMTRAK. Delaney has three daughters: Debbie in Paris, and Niki and Michaela of New York City.

As a non-regulatory agency of the Commerce Department's Technology Administration, NIST promotes U.S. economic growth by working with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements and standards.