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What
is TBT?
TBT is short for the Agreement on
Technical Barriers to Trade
Technical Barriers to Trade
Notifying Organizations
The
World Trade Organization (WTO) is the international body
where nation states negotiate the rules of
trade between themselves. The focus of these negotiations is to reduce
barriers to the international trade of agricultural and manufactured
products (GATT), services (GATS), and intellectual property (TRIPS).
Barriers to
trade are mechanisms devised by national governments
to give the producers of their own nation an advantage in
domestic markets over the imports from other nations.
The
Agreement on Technical Barriers to
Trade (TBT) was adopted as part of the GATT 1994 revisions. All products (including industrial and
agricultural products) fall within the scope of TBT, but services do
not. Also excluded are sanitary and phytosanitary products and
government procurement, for which there are separate agreements.
TBT recognizes the
right of governments to regulate the products on their domestic markets
for certain legitimate objectives including
national security requirements; prevention of deceptive practices
(product quality standards); and the protection of human health or
safety, animal or plant life and the environment.
TBT promotes "good
regulatory practices" among member governments.
Technical regulations, testing procedures, and conformity assessments
may not be adopted with the intent or effect of creating unnecessary
obstacles to international trade. They should not be more strict or
strictly applied (i.e. trade-restrictive) than is necessary to fulfill
the legitimate objective, taking into account the risks of
non-fulfillment.
Technical regulations
based upon
international standards are presumed not to create
unnecessary barriers to trade. TBT requires that technical regulations,
testing procedures, and conformity assessments be based upon
international standards whenever a relevant standard exists or its
completion is imminent (as long as fundamental climatic or geographical
factors do not preclude its use).
TBT requires national
governments to respect the confidentiality
of information submitted under conformity assessment procedures, such
that the commercial interests of the producer are protected.
Member nations are
strongly encouraged to negotiate agreements for the
mutual recognition of results from each
other's conformity assessment systems, even when the procedures
differ, provided the objective is the same. The development of regional
and international systems for conformity assessment is encouraged.
TBT requires national
governments to notify the WTO Secretariat
whenever they propose to adopt technical regulations or conformity
assessment procedures which are not based upon international standards.
Governments must provide copies of the proposed regulation and allow a
reasonable time for comments by WTO members. Upon adoption, regulations
must be published promptly, allowing a reasonable interval until the
effective date.
Annex 3 is the
Code of Good Practice, a summary of
TBT requirements for national standards organizations.
Standardizing bodies which agree to comply with Annex 3 notify
their acceptance to the ISO/IEC Information Center in
Geneva, Switzerland. To date, the code has been notified by 170
organizations in 130 countries.
This summary of
Technical Barriers to Trade is designed to
provide you with an accurate, easy-to-understand overview of the
topic and
does not
constitute legal advice. The actual standard in the original language
should be reviewed and used for all business, legal, and product
compliance purposes.
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RSJ
Technical Consulting
PO Box 867705, Plano, Texas 75086
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