8/ WTO/OECD report highlights unique contribution of TBT/SPS Agreements to regulatory cooperation
3 July 2019
The WTO Agreements on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), and their related Committees, provide a unique framework for international regulatory co-operation contributing to ease trade frictions, according to a joint publication issued by the WTO and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on 3 July at the Aid for Trade Global Review 2019.
The publication “Facilitating Trade through Regulatory Co-operation: The Case of the WTO’s TBT/SPS Agreements and Committees” highlights how specific disciplines of the Agreements and practices of the related Committees promote international regulatory co-operation. These include the notification of draft measures, harmonization with international standards, and discussion of specific trade concerns.
The study, launched by WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo and OECD Secretary General Ángel Gurría, also makes recommendations on how to better leverage the transparency and cooperation opportunities provided by the TBT and SPS Agreements, which facilitate the setting of notification requirements for proposed regulatory measures with potentially significant trade effects.
The TBT and SPS Agreements strongly encourage WTO members to use relevant international standards as the basis for their measures, including disciplines on equivalence and recognition of foreign conformity assessment which help to ensure that traders do not face duplicative requirements or procedures when regulations differ across markets. These disciplines encourage the reduction of regulatory diversity and associated trade costs, according to the publication.
“In a nutshell, this is about members working together to bridge differences in their regulatory systems, including through increased dialogue, transparency and cooperation. This may happen, for example, by agreeing to align with international standards, or by mutual recognition. This involves many areas, for example, clinical trials for medical devices, veterinary certificates, safety of electronics, common food standards, or protecting consumers from harmful ingredients in cosmetics. The list goes on. This closer coordination helps to disseminate good practices and counter, to some extent, the costly effects of regulatory systems acting in isolation. In turn, it leads to lower trade costs and increased opportunities for traders everywhere,” said DG Azevêdo. Read his full speech here.
Ángel Gurría said this joint study comes on the back of an important volume of work between the two organizations and is especially pertinent in the current context of escalating trade tensions, which weaken investment prospects and growth potential putting a strain on the international trading system. “Today, more than ever, it is crucial that we continue to work together to pursue our goals in unison. We remain committed at the OECD to working with the WTO in many ways in the design, development and delivery of better trade policies for better lives,” he added.
The publication was jointly prepared by the OECD and the WTO secretariats in the framework of OECD work on international regulatory cooperation. It is part of a series started in 2014 that provides overviews of the structure, governance, instruments and processes of international organizations in support of international regulatory cooperation.
Source: wto.org
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267