. /.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/W/149
1 November 2000
(00-4570)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English
PRINCIPLES OF COHERENCE AND SINGULARITY TO BE OBSERVED BY
INTERNATIONAL STANDARDIZING BODIES
Contribution from the European Communities
1. The EC proposes to consider the particular role of international standards used as a basis for
technical regulation as stipulated by Article 2.4 of the Agreement.  In this context the EC considers
the coherence of international standards as essential, in particular when legitimate objectives such as
health and safety for product specific technical regulations are concerned.  Principles such as
openness, transparency, impartiality, efficiency and relevancy are important, but should be applicableto any standards development process.  To fu rther the implementation of the Agreement these
principles should not remain abstract, but become related to the international context: the
requirements to consider a national standardizing body open are different from those for an
international body.  Likewise, all process-related principles are not an end in themselves when
developing coherent international standards.  They have to be related to the constitution of the bodyapplying them.
2. The EC is convinced that an international standardizing body developing standards to be used
as a basis for mandatory technical legislation must guarantee national representation.  Only this way a
commitment to use the international standards in every country can be reinforced.  A body that
develops standards that are used as a basis for mandatory technical regulations must exclusively be
constituted and act as an international body.  Conflicts of interest and incoherence would arise if other
bodies were to act as though they were international.  If an international standardizing body did not
have exclusive international status (and observed the criteria of impartiality, openness, transparency
and effectiveness when developing standards), the legal consequences of using ‘international’standards of such a body, as a basis of technical regulation, would risk to jeopardise the spirit of the
Agreement.  Differing ‘international’ standards covering the same issue would impose on countries
adopting technical regulations a choice between several relevant ‘international’ standards.  The effect
of such a choice would in return create unnecessary regulatory barriers to trade and thus negatively
impact on the Agreement and its objectives.
3. The EC would like to illustrate this view by means of the following example.  If the use of a
specific standard within a technical regulation is made mandatory, and a Member “A” incorporatesone out of a variety of different international st andards on the same matter, it complies with the
obligation in Article 2.4 of the Agreement for Members to use international standards as a basis for
technical regulations.  If other Members "B" and "C" adopt technical regulations covering the same
subject but use different ‘international’ standards as a basis for their mandatory regulation, they
observe Article 2.4 of the Agreement as well.  Nevertheless, the market remains fragmented since thedifferent Members "A", "B" and "C", although all complying with Article 2.4 of the Agreement,
would require different standards as a basis for mandatory regulation.  Consequently, Members could
reject imports of products meeting different ‘international’ standards but covering the same issue.
4. Such a result would certainly not be in line with the spirit and purpose of the Agreement of
which the objective is to facilitate trade and to reduce fragmentation, among others, by means of the
use of international standards.  It is the EC’s understanding that for achieving this purpose suchG/TBT/W/149
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standards should be coherent.  Applying only the principles of standards development would
undermine Article 2.4 of the Agreement to the extent of rendering it void.
5. The EC welcomes the efforts to achieve agreement amongst Members on a set of principles
that ought to apply to international standardizing bodies and international standards.  The illustrative
example shows the potential consequences of a proliferation of bodies developing ‘international’standards on the very same matter.  This may result in considerable regulatory barriers to trade when
using such standards as a basis for mandatory technical regulation.
6. With a view to the above, the EC would like to reiterate the importance attached to the
constitution of an international standardizing body.  To this end, the EC welcomes the
communications from the Observers IEC and ISO (G/TBT/W/131).  Both parties claim that
international bodies have to respect the same princi ples of membership and due process that form the
basis for WTO membership, otherwise their standards shall not be recognized as internationalstandards in the WTO context.  The EC also believes that the status of Treaty Organisations such as
the ITU and the Codex Alimentarius Commission are exclusively international, based on national
representation and can also be considered as developing international standards.  The EC considers
national representation as a means to reflect a Member’s national consensus with regard to its
economic, technological, environmental and public interests.  To this end, we would like to point toparagraph G of Annex 3 of the Agreement that provides for participation in a particular international
standardization activity, whenever possible, through one delegation representing all standardizing
bodies in the territory of a Member.
7. The EC supports the principle of singularity proposed in Brazil’s contribution
(G/TBT/W/140) aiming to avoid conflicting international standards which can be a source for
obstacles to trade, in particular when used as a basis for technical regulations.  Hence, for each area of
standardization no more than one International Standardizing Body should be active.  This body
should produce a single and coherent set of international standards.  International StandardizingBodies should act jointly or in cooperation in cases of intersection when their areas of activity
converge, be it for scientific, technological or regulatory reasons.
__________Transparenc y
Openness
Impartiality
Effectiveness
RelevancyTransparenc y
Openness
Impartiality
Effectiveness
Relevancy
Coherence
Singularit y
Standards  from
ISO
IEC
Treaty Organisations
…