The WTO Agreements Series Technical Barriers to Trade

1 World Trade Organization Centre William Rappard Rue de Lausanne 154 CH - 1211 Geneva 21 Switzerland' + 41 (0)22 739 51 11 7 + 41 (0)22 731 42 06 @ WTO Agreements SeriesTechnical Barriers to TradeThe WTO Agreements Series Technical Barriers to Trade9789287038364 ISBN 978-92-870-3836-4 The WTO Agreements seriesThe WTO s Agreements are the legal foundation for the international trading system that is used by the bulk of the world s trading nations. This Series offers a set of handy reference booklets on selected Agreements . Each volume contains the text of one agreement, an explanation designed to help the user understand the text, and in some cases supplementary material.

2 They are intended to be an authoritative aid for understanding the Agreements , but because of the legal complexity of the Agreements , the introductions cannot be taken as legal interpretations of the Agreements were the outcome of the 1986 1994 Uruguay Round of world Trade negotiations held under the auspices of what was then the GATT (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ). The full set is available in The Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations: The Legal Texts. It includes about 60 Agreements , annexes, decisions and understandings, but not the commitments individual countries made on tariffs and services. A full package of Agreements that includes over 20,000 pages of commitments is available from WTO Publications in a 34-volume set, as well as a CD-ROM.

3 The Results of the Uruguay volumes in this Series Agreement Establishing the WTOA gricultureGATT 1994 and 1947 Sanitary and Phytosanitary MeasuresTechnical Barriers to TradeRevised and updated in May 2014 Amended in August 2014 This publication will also be available in French and Spanish ISBN 978-92-870- 3836-4 ISSN 1020-4768 World Trade Organization Revised in 2014 ContentsIntroduction The basic structure of WTO Agreements The TBT Agreement An overview Key principles Transparency TBT Committee NegotiationsDisputes brought under the TBT Agreement Frequently asked questions Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (the legal text) 6 7 11 15 24 28 32 33 35 39 Decisions and recommendations adopted by the TBT Committee since 1 January 1995 Part 1: Decisions and recommendations 1.

4 Good Regulatory Practice 2. Conformity Assessment 3. Standards 4. Transparency 5. Technical Assistance 6. Special and Differential Treatment 7. Operation of the CommitteeAnnexes to Part 11 Indicative List of Approaches to Facilitate Acceptance of the Results of Conformity Assessment2 Decision of the Committee on Principles for the Development of international Standards, Guides and Recommendations with relation to Articles 2, 5 and Annex 3 of the Agreement65 69 69 73 78 84 110 116 118 120 120 122 3 Technical Barriers to Trade3 Format and Guidelines for Notification Procedures for Draft Technical Regulations and Conformity Assessment Procedures4 Notification Format under Article Unofficial Translations (Notification Format)

5 6 Booklets on Enquiry Points7 Format for the Voluntary Notification of Specific Technical Assistance Needs or Responses 8 Format for Notifications Related to the Code of Good Practice for the Preparation, Adoption and Application of Standards Contained in Annex 3 of the WTO TBT AgreementPart 2: Rules of Procedure for the Meetings of the WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade and Guidelines for Observer Status for Governments and international Intergovernmental OrganizationsObservers in the TBT CommitteeExample of a Notification126 130 131 133 135 137 141 151 1525 Technical Barriers to TradeIntroductionThe WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (the TBT Agreement ) entered into force with the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 1 January 1995.

6 It aims to ensure that regulations, standards, testing and certification procedures do not create unnecessary obstacles to booklet discusses the text of the TBT Agreement as it appears in the Final Act of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, signed in Marrakesh on 15 April 1994. This agreement and others contained in the Final Act, along with the amended General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1994), are part of the treaty which established the WTO. The WTO superseded the GATT as the umbrella organization for international WTO Secretariat has prepared this booklet to assist public understanding of the TBT Agreement. The booklet first presents the basic structure of WTO Agreements .

7 It then provides a brief overview of the background, purpose and scope of the TBT Agreement, as well as the types of measures it covers. It sets out the key principles of the Agreement, and discusses how these have been addressed in recent disputes brought under the TBT Agreement. It next focuses on transparency, a cornerstone of the TBT Agreement. It also describes the mandate, role and work of the TBT Committee, and considers how TBT-related matters have arisen in the Doha Round negotiations. A separate section addresses a number of frequently asked questions about the Agreement. The booklet also contains the full text of the TBT Agreement, decisions and recommendations by the TBT Committee, a list of observers in the TBT Committee and an example of a typical TBT Barriers to TradeThe basic structure of WTO agreementsThe conceptual frameworkBroadly speaking, the WTO Agreements for the two largest areas of Trade goods and services share a common three-part outline, even though the details are sometimes different (see Figure 1).

8 They start with general disciplines contained in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) (for goods), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Agreement on Trade -Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).Figure 1: The basic structure of the WTO agreementsUmbrella AGREEMENT ESTABLISHING THE WTO GoodsServicesIntellectual propertyBasic principlesGAT TGATSTRIPSA dditional detailsOther goods Agreements and annexesServices annexesMarket access commitmentsCountries schedules of commitmentsCountries schedules of commitments (and MFN exemptions)Dispute settlementDISPUTE SETTLEMENTT ransparencyTRADE POLICY REVIEWS8 WTO Agreements Seriessome agricultural goods.

9 For GATS, the commitments state how much access foreign service providers are allowed for specific sectors, and they include lists of types of services where individual countries say they are not applying the most-favoured-nation principle of of the Uruguay Round dealt with the first two parts: general disciplines and disciplines for specific sectors. At the same time, market access negotiations were possible for industrial goods. Once the principles had been worked out, negotiations could proceed on the commitments for sectors such as agriculture and services. Negotiations after the Uruguay Round and before the Doha Round began in 2001 focused largely on market access commitments: financial services, basic telecommunications, maritime transportation (under GATS) and information technology equipment (under GATT).

10 The agreement in the third area of Trade covered by the WTO on intellectual property (IP) covers general IP disciplines as well as disciplines covering specific IP areas, such as copyright, patents, trademarks and geographical indications. Other details come from conventions and Agreements outside the WTO. The agreement on dispute settlement contains specific procedural disciplines on how to conduct WTO disputes while the Trade Policy Review Mechanism aims to ensure that WTO members' Trade policies and practices are importantOne other set of Agreements not included in the diagram above is also important: the two plurilateral Agreements not signed by all members: fair Trade in civil aircraft and government procurement.