One of the main problems in promoting exports is the lack of information to industries and foreign exporters, on the standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures applicable to products in target markets. The WTO Agreement on TBT therefore requires that each member country establish a national enquiry point which is able to answer all reasonable enquiries from other member countries and interested parties, including business organizations, and provide relevant documents on:
Technical regulations and voluntary standards adopted or proposed to be adopted by the member country or the regional body of which the country may be a member.
Conformity assessment procedures adopted or proposed to be adopted by the member country or the regional body of which the country may be a member.
The services provided by the enquiry points are being increasingly used by business, consumer associations and other interested groups to obtain information on technical regulations of foreign countries.
A number of options are available:
If your country is a WTO Member, it will have set up a NEP. You can obtain the desired information directly from your NEP. If the desired information is not available, then you can request your NEP to forward your request for information to its counterpart in the country to which you wish to export. You can also address your query directly to the enquiry point abroad.
If your country is not a WTO Member, you can still contact the NEP in your target market. Even though NEPs are not obliged to respond to enquiries from non-WTO Members, they will rarely refuse to do so.
It becomes a little bit more difficult to obtain information if your target market does not have a NEP. You will have to deal with other official sources (such as embassies and departments of trade or commerce) either in your country or abroad.
Should all the above fail, then the only way open to you is for you yourself to conduct a search in your target market. It can be a frustrating task to find your way through the bureaucracies; obtaining the help of a local partner will ease your way through the maze.
More information is available from WTO website www.wto.org which contains addresses and websites of National Enquiry Points, notifications submitted by members on technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures, etc. (After opening the WTO website, click on ‘Trade Topics’, followed by “Goods” and then ‘Technical Barriers to Trade’ to reach the relevant webpage of WTO).
The WTO Agreement on TBT requires that information be supplied, upon request, to member countries, concerning the preparation, adoption or application of technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures, particularly when they are not in accordance with international standards, guidelines or recommendations. This information is expected to be supplied at an early stage to allow for written comments, discussions and which should be taken into account for finalization of regulations. Should a proposed technical regulation not be in accordance with international standards, guidelines or recommendations, and have the potential to significantly affect the trade of other member countries, WTO member countries must be notified through the WTO Secretariat, and any member may request an explanation and justification for this regulation.
Notifications received in this manner by the WTO Secretariat are immediately sent to the national Governments of the other member countries. It is the responsibility of the Governments to pass on the notifications to the industry associations and professional technical bodies concerned, so that if they deem it necessary, they can obtain copies of the draft documents and comment on them. Countries usually designate a responsible authority, or sometimes the relevant enquiry point, to receive notifications from WTO. In this case, the enquiry point should ensure that information regarding such notifications is disseminated to all interested parties in Government, business and society. The comments, if any, on this notification should be made within a period of 60 days.
NSBs keep a collection of their own standards, and they will also have collection of national standards of other countries and also that of international standards. NSBs are also licensed to sell foreign and international standards.
Many web sites of national and international standards bodies linked to WSSN allow you to search for, buy, and download standards on payment on-line.
There are private distributors (e.g. IHS ) which commercialize CD ROMs containing full sets of standards developed by various NSBs.
NSB of your country can also provide information on their future standards as well as future standards of other countries, including international standards.
Information on Conformity Assessment procedures relating to products for which technical regulations are applicable, can be obtained in the manner as given in Slides 90 and 91.
To get information about product certification you should contact the national accreditation body, which can provide information about accredited product certification bodies. Information about national accreditation bodies can be obtained from the website of the International Accreditation Forum (http://www.iaf.org) or from ITC’s “World directory of organizations dealing with standards, technical regulations, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, eco-labelling, quality management and accreditation” (www.intracen.org).
Information about ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certification bodies can be obtained from the “ISO Directory of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 accreditation and certification bodies” available on line (free of cost) from the ISO website www.iso.org . The directory lists the accreditation body (if there is one in the country) and the certification bodies operating in each country. In addition, it provides information on quality system certification/registration bodies operating multinationally. List of companies certified by a certification body can be directly obtained from the certification bodies operating in your country or through their websites.
The business community has an important role in the following aspects of the WTO Agreement on TBT and its implementation and operation:
Business should be aware of the Agreement on TBT and advise Government on its implementation by trade partners and highlight the problems encountered by non-implementation of the TBT Agreement.
The business community should become actively involved in reviewing notifications and submit comments on draft technical regulations so that views of the industry are considered before the regulations are finalized.
Business should advise Government of possible areas where technical barriers to trade are being experienced, or could develop, in other countries and submit proposals for reduction of barriers to trade.
Government has the sole responsibility for communication with WTO and negotiation with other member countries. It is expected of Government to designate a single central Government Authority to be responsible for communication with WTO. Common practice in most countries is that this authority establishes a committee or committees to discuss WTO matters, including TBT issues. These committees are usually representative of most stakeholders and should include all relevant business associations. It is imperative that the business community ensures their active participation in these advisory committees not only to advise the representative(s), but also to protect its own interests, and obtain first hand the latest information on WTO and TBT matters.
Governments have, through WTO, negotiated various concessions, tariff reductions, and trading rules. Business can now use this information to convert the tariff reductions and liberalization commitments into opportunities for trade. It can be achieved by studying the concessions and agreements negotiated by the Governments, and using that detailed acquired knowledge to develop and adopt appropriate export promotion and development strategies.
Business associations provide a useful forum for discussion of issues regarding notifications or any of the other issues referred to previously. Business associations could be a suitable channel for communicating the views of business to government.
Related articles:
- Technical Barriers to Trade - Part 1
- Technical Barriers to Trade - Part 2
- Technical Barriers to Trade - Part 2 (Contd)
- Technical Barriers to Trade - Part 3
- Technical Barriers to Trade - Part 3 (Contd)
- Technical Barriers to Trade - Part 4
- Technical Barriers to Trade - Part 4/2
- Technical Barriers to Trade - Part 4/3
- Technical Barriers to Trade - Part 4/4
- Technical Barriers to Trade - Part 4/5
- Technical Barriers to Trade - Part 4/6
- Technical Barriers to Trade - Part 4/7