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Twenty-first annual review of the implementation and operation of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade

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Twenty-first annual review of the implementation and operation of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade

Twenty-first annual review of the implementation and operation of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade
Photo credit: WTO

The WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade will conduct its Twenty First Annual Review of the Implementation and Operation of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (the TBT Agreement) under Article 15.3 at its next meeting on 9-10 March 2016. This document contains information on developments in the Committee relating to the implementation and operation of the TBT Agreement from 1 January to 31 December 2015.

In 2015, the Committee completed its Seventh Triennial Review. The Report includes a set of recommendations covering, among other things: good regulatory practices, regulatory cooperation between Members, conformity assessment procedures, standards and transparency. The reports also sets out a work programme of thematic sessions aimed at strengthening information exchange in the various cross-cutting areas covered by the TBT Agreement.

In terms of the Committee’s review of measures, during the year, notifications decreased by 12% compared to the previous year (to a total of 1,989 notifications). Nevertheless, the trend since 2015 has been an upward one driven increasingly by developing Members.

In 2015, developing Members continued to submit significantly more new notifications than developed Members – also the number of notifications from LDCs increased during the year.

In total, 86 specific trade concerns (STCs) were discussed in 2015, the second highest number since 1995. A much lower proportion of these, however, were notified to the Committee: only 49% of the STCs discussed had been notified (well below the long-run average of 68%).

On technical assistance (TA), the Secretariat delivered 18 TA events specifically targeted to the TBT Agreement and an additional 19 TBT modules were delivered as part of various other WTO TA activities.

Finally, ad hoc observer status was granted to the African Organization for Standardisation (ARSO) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).


Review of TBT Measures

Notifications of technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures

Trends in new notifications and follow-up (addenda, corrigenda, revision)

In 2015, Members submitted 1,438 new notifications of technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures. In addition, 27 revisions, 476 addenda and 47 corrigenda to notifications were also submitted (Chart 1). In total, 1,988 TBT notifications were submitted in 2015 by 73 Members. While 2014 marked the year with most notifications in a single year since 1995, the number of notifications decreased by 12% in 2015. Nevertheless, 2015 was still the year with the fourth most notifications overall since 1995. Since 2007, Members have submitted more than 1,000 new notifications annually with that figure increasing to 1,500 since 2012. Since the entry into force of the Agreement and up to 31 December 2015, a total 25,390 notifications have been submitted by 128 Members. The number of notifying Members increased by 2 in 2015 as Suriname and Yemen notified for the first time.

Over the last decade there has been a marked growth in the use of addenda and corrigenda, with a record 675 notified in 2014. In 2015, this number decreased to 523 notified addenda and corrigenda. The US (1,200), Brazil (533), Ecuador (529), Colombia (323) and the EU (307) have notified the most addenda and corrigenda since 1995.

The overall relation between new notifications, addenda and corrigenda, and revisions is illustrated in Chart 2. The Committee adopted a recommendation on “Coherent Use of Notification Formats” in 2014 which provides Members with guidance on when to use different formats. It is recommended that Members use: new notifications “to notify the draft text of a proposed technical regulation or conformity assessment procedure”; addenda “to notify additional information related to a notification or the text of a notified measure”; corrigenda “to correct minor administrative or clerical errors (which do not entail any changes to the meaning of the content)”; and revisions “to indicate that the notified measure has been substantially re-drafted prior to adoption or entry into force.”

While the number of revisions has also grown, this format is used infrequently. China (31), Brazil (20), Canada (16), South Africa (14) the Dominican Republic (10) and Korea (9) have notified most revisions since 1995.

Members’ engagement in notifications

2014 showed a new trend indicating more notifications from Members that had been historically less active. This partly continued in 2015 as observed over the period 1995-2014 In 2015, for example, the US again led by numbers of new notifications (283) followed by Ecuador (126) (Member which notified most in 2014) and Brazil (115). China was more active in 2015 than in 2014, submitting 106 notifications compared to 49 in 2014. Uganda submitted 100 notifications in 2015.

Three consecutive years of significant notification activity has placed Ecuador (126 in 2015; 420 in 2014; 103 in 2013) among the ten Members that have notified most measures over the period of 1995-2015. Korea has dropped out of the “top ten” category following Japan with a total number of 765 notifications in 2015.

Focusing on the four Members with most notifications over the last ten years since 2006, there was a significant growth in notifications of all types from the US (190%) between 2006-2015. Meanwhile, there was a gradual growth in notifications from the EU (130%), Brazil (123%), and China (60%), notwithstanding a spike in notifications from China in 2008-2009.

The overall usage of notification formats differs between Members. The number of noftification submitted between 2006-2015 indicates the different notification preferences of Members. For instance, while the US submitted most addenda and corrigenda (1056), China submitted most new notifications (996). Yet, the addenda or corrigenda format has been used little by China with a total of 29 notifications over the last decade.

Notifications by region and development status

The growth in notifications since 2005 has been driven by increasing engagement of developing Members. This trend continued in 2015 as developing Members submitted significantly more new notifications in 2015 than developed Members. Yet, the share of new notifications from developing Members declined to 69% of the total compared to 80% in the previous year. Least-developed country Members (LDCs) continued to notify less frequently, but in 2015 notifications from this group slightly increased due to Uganda’s high level of notification activity.

The number of new notifications submitted by Members grouped by region shows that more than half the new notifications in 2015 were submitted by Members from Middle East and Asian regions (Chart 9). Compared to the previous year, Members in the South and Central America and Caribbean region decreased their level of new notifications in 2015 due, in particular, to fewer notifications from Ecuador. Growth in the number of new notifications submitted by Members in the Middle East region is one driver of the overall increase in new notifications since 2009. While the share of notifications of the Middle East region has again decreased since its peak in 2013 (489), reports indicate the increasing engagement of Asia, catching up with the Middle East region, both holding a share of 26% in 2015.

TBT notifications by region WTO March 2016

Online submission of notifications (TBT NSS)

In 2015, a total of 1,034 notifications were submitted through the online TBT NSS by 26 Members representing 52% of the annual notification volume. Online submission has facilitated the submission and processing of notifications, leading to more rapid circulation and increasing the time available to Members to submit comments on notifications of interest. The Secretariat continued to prioritize processing of notifications received through the TBT NSS during 2015.

Stated objectives of notifications

Amongst the 1,438 new notifications received in 2015, the objective of protection of human health or safety was predominately cited by Members, followed by: prevention of deceptive practices and consumer protection; quality requirements; and protection of the environment. The increasing prominence of the objective of quality requirements is no longer consistent with the overall trend since 1995 that places the protection of the environment as third most common objective. The section “other” summarizes a range of objectives including cost saving and increasing productivity, national security and not specified as these objectives have all together been mentioned only four times.

Specific Trade Concerns (STCs)

Since its first meeting, Members have used the TBT Committee as a forum to discuss trade issues related to technical regulations, conformity assessment procedures and standards, prepared, adopted and applied by other Members. These discussions are referred to as “specific trade concerns” (STCs) and relate either to proposed measures, or to measures currently in force. TBT Committee meetings afford Members the opportunity to review STCs in a multilateral setting, to seek further information and clarification on the measures in question, and to work towards mutually acceptable solutions.

Trends in STCs

In 2015, 37 new STCs were raised, which is ten less than in the previous year. In addition, 49 previously raised STCs were discussed during the year, the second highest number in any given year since 1995. (Annex B contains a full list; Annex C provides details on new STCs raised in 2015). Overall, 86 STCs were discussed in 2015, second only to 2012.

The total number of STCs discussed annually has grown significantly between 2006 and 2015 (from 63 to 161). This upward trend has meant that the Committee has used an increased amount of meeting time discussing STCs (only around 21 STCs were discussed per meeting in 2006 while that figure was 54 in 2015). Overall, 2015 marks the year when the most STCs (both new and previously raised) have been discussed since 1995.

Members’ engagement in STCs

The Members that most frequently raised STCs in 2015 were the US, Canada and the EU, following the general trend since 1995. The number of previous concerns indicates the overall number of times a Member has re-raised concerns. Thus, a concern can be re-raised three times per year, in the March, June and/or November meetings. In 2015, the EU and the US both raised most new and previous concerns with 82 each. Some Members were more active in raising previous concerns, for instance, Mexico reverted to 33 previously raised STCs but raised only 1 new STC.

Members subject to STCs

Between the years 1995-2015, measures of the EU, China and the US have been most frequently subject to concerns raised by other Members. In 2015, China and the EU were subject to the highest number of STCs. This marks a change compared to the previous year in which Ecuador (11) and Russia (6) were subject to a significant number of STCs. 2015 therefore picks up the trend of previous years.

STCs by region and development status

Members from the Asia and the North American regions raise most STCs, whereas Members from South and Central America and the Caribbean region as well as Europe have been most often subject to STCs. In 2015, Members in Asia were subject to 17 STCs, the most of any regional group. Members from Africa, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Middle East regions are less frequently subject to and active in raising STCs. Historically, North America, Europe and Asia have been most active in raising STCs, while Asia is most often subject to STCs.

Since 1995, developed Members have raised the majority of STCs. This is also valid for 2015. Since 1995, as well as in 2015, developing Members were more frequently subject to STCs. No measures of LDC Members have been subject to STCs.

Types of concerns raised in STCs

In 2015 the most frequently invoked concerns by Members in their statements in the Committee were those relating to transparency, slightly different from the long term trend. Issues relating to further information or clarification about the measure at issue and to the avoidance of unnecessary barriers to trade were also frequent, as were concerns about the rationale for measures, the use of relevant international standards as well as issues of discrimination.

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