Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources headquarters at Government Complex Sejong / Yonhap
Korea's chief standardization authority has entered into a multilateral pact with its counterparts in Singapore, the U.K., Australia and Canada, to carve out a greater role in shaping international artificial intelligence (AI) regulations amid an escalating U.S.-China tech rivalry.
The memorandum of understanding, signed Thursday at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore, unites the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) — an affiliate of Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources— with Enterprise Singapore, the British Standards Institution, Standards Australia and the Standards Council of Canada.
The agreement focuses primarily on "pre-standardization," a critical phase of industry-driven groundwork that precedes formal global rules. This process defines core technical concepts, requirements, testing methodologies and conformity assessment guidelines before frameworks are officially codified by international regulators.
Under the accord, the five nations plan to establish a regular circuit of joint workshops and expert seminars to share administrative best practices. The coalition will collaborate on technical reports, white papers and guidance blueprints, while initiating pilot projects to test standards in high-stakes commercial sectors like advanced manufacturing and health care.
