WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/2/Add.64
4 October 2001
(01-4783)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English
IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE AGREEMENT
ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE
Communication from Lithuania
Addendum
The following statement under Article 15.2 of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade
has been received from the Government of Lithuania.
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I. RELEVANT LAWS AND REGULATIONS
1. The fundamental law under which the Republic of Lithuania has formally undertaken the
obligations of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade is the Law on Ratification of Lithuania’s
World Trade Organization Accession Package No IX-292, adopted on 24 April 2001, published in
Official Gazette (“Valstybes Zinios)” No. 46, entered into force 31 May 2001.
2. The implementation and administration of TBT Agreement is based on the following
legislation:
A. LAW ON STANDARDIZATION (11 A PRIL 2000 N O.VIII-1618)
3. The law establishes the basic objectives and principles of national standardization, the
procedure for creation and application of standards, the relationship between the standards and
technical regulations. The basic principles of national standardization correspond with internationally
recognized requirements. The process of standardization is based on following principles of
participation of all interested parties, drafting and adoption of standards by consensus, voluntaryapplication of standards, transparency, public availability, coherence, etc.
4. Although application of standards is voluntary,  technical regulations are mandatory and the
authority to issue them lies with the ministries and other governmental bodies. Technical regulations
are legitimised by provisions of laws, Government  Resolutions, decrees, ordinances, etc., which are
published in the Official Gazette. The Law on Standardization provides that technical regulationsshall be drafted by public authorities to reach such objectives as protection of human health, animal or
plant life or health, or the environment.
B. L
AW ON THE CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT (6 O CTOBER 1998, N O. VIII-870)
5. The law establishes the structure of conformity assessment system, defining objects (products,
processes, services, quality systems, personnel) as well as the operators of the conformity assessment(authorized institutions, certification bodies, testing and calibration laboratories, National
Accreditation Bureau, inspection bodies, suppliers), their rights and obligations.  It also stipulates
mandatory and voluntary conformity assessment.G/TBT/2/Add.64
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6. The law provides that conformity assessment documents issued by foreign countries are
recognized in accordance with the procedures established by international agreements.
C. (LAW ON PRODUCT SAFETY (1 JUNE 1999, N O.VIII-1206)
7. The Law establishes general requirements for product safety, the principles of product safety
control, the procedure for providing and communicating information about dangerous products, theduties and liability of producers, sellers and suppliers of services for placing dangerous products on
the market and provides that the mandatory product safety and marking requirements set forth by the
public authorities shall be in line with the requirements of the WTO.
D. G
OVERNMENT RESOLUTION ON INFORMATION EXCHANGE ON STANDARDS , TECHNICAL
REGULATIONS , RULES ON INFORMATION SOCIETY SERVICES , CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT
PROCEDURES AND DRAFTS THEREOF (22 D ECEMBER 2000, N O. 1482)
8. The Resolution (Section II) provides the obligations of public authorities as well as of a
National Standards Body (which has accepted the Co de of Good Practice and is appointed to run the
WTO TBT Enquiry Point)  related to drafting, adoption and application of standards, technical
regulations and conformity assessment procedures, stemming from the TBT Agreement. It also
establishes the internal infrastructure for information exchange among public authorities and the
Enquiry Point allowing to fulfil the functions under the Agreement, both, notification of drafttechnical regulations and conformity assessment procedures and dissemination of the notifications
coming from WTO Members.
E. O
RDER OF LITHUANIAN STANDARDS BOARD DIRECTOR (19 J ANUARY 2001 N O. 6)
9. It states acceptance of the Code of Good Practice and approving the provisions of the Code
related to preparing, adoption and application of standards as a guidance in national standardizationactivity.
II. TRANSPARENCY
A. P
UBLICATIONS
10. LST Bulletin is  a monthly periodical on standardization.  It is the publication where notices
on draft standards of international standardization organizations for public enquiry are placed, as wellas  the work proceeding on the notified draft technical regulations and conformity assessment
procedures are announced.  Notices on draft Lithuanian standards are placed on the website of
Lithuanian Standards Board at www.lsd.lt .  The notices of new approved Lithuanian standards are
published in LST Bulletin.  The website also cont ains a regularly updated Catalogue of Lithuanian
Standards and also serves as an extra tool for dissemination of the notifications of draft technical
regulations and conformity assessment procedures by WTO Members.
11. The texts of approved technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures are
published in the Official Gazette and copies of these documents can be obtained from the Enquiry
Point.
B. TIME ALLOWED FOR COMMENTS
12. Except for the cases of emergency, a 60 days period is provided for submission of written
comments of the WTO Members on draft standards, technical regulations and conformity assessmentprocedures.G/TBT/2/Add.64
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C. ENQUIRY POINT
13. The particulars of the TBT Enquiry Point set up in compliance with Art.10.1 and Art. 3 of the
Agreement are as follows:
Lithuanian Standards Board
Information CentreLithuanian TBT Enquiry Point
30, T.Kosciuskos str.
2600 Vilnius
Lithuania
Tel.: 370 2 709347
Fax: 370 2 709367E-mail: enquiry@lsd.lt
Contact: Rima Slaveniene
The Enquiry Point is fully operational.
D. N
ATIONAL AUTHORITIES AND AGENCIES
14. In accordance with Article 10.10 the overall responsibility for the implementation on the
national level of the provisions concerning notification procedures rests with the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.
15. Lithuanian Standards Board (National Standard s Body) is responsible for implementation and
administration of Annex 3 of the Agreement (Code of Good Practice), running a national
TBT Enquiry Point, fulfilment of the information requirements laid down in Article 10, notification of
draft technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures (Ministry of Foreign Affairs is
coordinating this activity), also for providing copies of the proposed technical regulations.
16. Lithuanian Standards Board is a correspondent member of ISO since 1992, an associate
member of IEC since1996, a full member of ETSI, an affiliate member of CEN since 1993 and of
CENELEC since 1997. It has accepted the Code of Good Practice for Preparation, Adoption and
Application of Standards and notified the same to IEC/ISO Information Centre. In order to fulfill the
obligations under the Code it prepares a Work Programme and sends notification about its existence
to ISO/IEC Information Centre.
E. MEASURES FOR NEW TECHNICAL REGULATIONS OR CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES
17. The Government Resolution No. 1482 mentioned in Part 1, inter alia, includes the obligation
for the public authorities preparing new technical regulations or conformity assessment procedures to
provide the drafts of their proposals, where relevant, to the TBT Enquiry Point for notification.
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