WASHINGTON, April 10. /ITAR-TASS/. To eliminate non-tariff barriers hampering development of trade and investment ties between Russia and the United States, both countries should cooperate in standardization and other fields of technical regulation. This idea was expressed at a bilateral conference on standardization and market supervision held recently in Houston, Texas, USA, according to the Russian trade mission in Washington.

More than 40 delegates gathered for the forum representing different business associations, research organizations and several companies from the two countries, as well as Russian governmental institutions and agencies. Representatives of several major institutes and societies, particularly those specialized in material testing, oil, machine-building and car making participated in the forum from the US.

US state agencies refrained from participation in the conference over sanctions that the country’s authorities imposed on Russia due to current events in Ukraine. These sanctions are known to be mainly aimed against US-Russian trade and economic cooperation. However, the conference that took place in Houston confirmed that there simply was no alternative to this cooperation in many key areas important for business circles of both countries.