WORLD TRADE G/TBT/2/Add.31
18February 1997
ORGANIZATION(97-0625)
Original: English Committee onTechnical Barriers toTrade
IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION OFTHE AGREEMENT
ONTECHNICAL BARRIERS TOTRADE
Thefollowing statement under Article 15.2oftheAgreement hasbeenreceived from the
delegation ofPoland.
_______________
1. TheAgreement establishing theWorld Trade Organization anditsintegral part,the
Agreement onTechnical barriers toTrade (hereinafter referred toastheTBTAgreement), after
having beenaccepted bytheParliament andsigned bythePresident, came intoforce on
1July1995. ThefulltextoftheAgreement establishing theWorld Trade Organization was
published intheJournal ofLaws (Dziennik Ustaw) No.98/1995 dated 24August 1995, pos.483,
andthetextoftheTBTAgreement waspublished intheJournal ofLaws (Dziennik Ustaw)
No.9/1996 dated 27January 1996, pos.54,annex.
2. Theprocess ofimplementation andadministration oftheTBTAgreement issupporting by
some legislative actsinexistence, which came intoforce before theestablishment oftheWTO
(ActofParliament of19November 1987 onTechnical Inspection, Regulation bytheMinister of
Industry andTrade of29December 1988, Decision oftheCouncil ofMinisters of
31December 1990 onTechnical Inspection, amended on24December 1990, ActofParliament of
3April 1993 onStandardization, ActofParliament of3April 1993 onResearch andCertification,
Order byDirector ofPolish Centre forTesting andCertification of20May1994 onestablishment
oftheregister ofproducts subjugated toobligation ofsubmitting tocertification forsafety
marking).
3. Theobligation ofrelevant national authorities tomeettherequirements onnotification
procedures given byTBTAgreement isincorporated intotheDecision oftheCouncil ofMinisters
No.92/96 accepted on13August 1996. According tothisDecision theMinistry ofEconomy is
appointed asthebody coordinating theimplementation oftheresults ofUruguay Round
Agreements andalsoisresponsible forimplementation oftheWTO Agreement onTechnical
Barriers toTrade.
4. Following theWTO Agreement onTechnical Barriers toTrade theenquiry point was
established inthePolish Committee forStandardization. Theaddress, telephone andfaxnumbers
oftheenquiry point areasfollows:
Polski Komitet Normalizacyjny (PKN)
(Polish Committee forStandardization)
WTO/TBT National Enquiry Point
P.O.Box411
ul.Elecktoralna 2
PL-00-950 Warsaw
Poland
./.G/TBT/2/Add.31
Page2
Tel: +(4822)6200241ext.651
+(4822)6247122
Fax: +(4822)6247122
E-mail: polknor@atos.warman.com.pl
Contact person: Mr.Marek Zarnoch
5. Inorder tomeettherequirements resulting from theTBTAgreement, theNational
Notification System (NNS) iscurrently being prepared. Thesystem willbecoordinated bythe
Ministry ofEconomy. Itsaddress isasfollows:
Ministry ofEconomy (MOE)
Department ofMultilateral Economic Relations
Coordinator oftheNNS WTO TBT
PlacTrzech Krzyz y5
00-507 Warsaw
Tel: +(4822)6935872
+(4822)6935661
Fax: +(4822)6292359
E-mail: kmjanusz@free.polbox.pl
Contact person: Mr.Kryzsztof Januszek
TheNational Notification System willgroup alltheinstitutions ofcentral State
administration andother bodies responsible fordevelopment andissuing ofthetechnical
regulations, standardization programmes andprocedures forassessment ofconformity which under
circumstances could constitute technical barriers totrade. According totheDecision ofthe
Council ofMinisters No.92/96 of13August 1996 thesaidbodies andinstitutions areobliged to
inform thecoordinator (MOE) about allexisting andbeing under preparation technical regulations,
standards andprocedures forassessment ofconformity andaccompanying legalactswithin the
scope oftheirresponsibilities. They arealsoobliged tosendthesaidinformation and
accompanying documents totheWTO TBTNational Enquiry Point toensure theirnotification in
conformance totheWTO requirements.
TheCoordinator together withtheWTO TBTNational Enquiry Point passes allreceived
draftdocuments forevaluation anddocuments inforce forpossible implementation toallrelevant
institutions andbodies.
6. Theexpected timelimits forsubmitting ofcomments inwriting ondrafttechnical
regulations, standards orconformity assessment procedures byother WTO Members is60days,
withexception forcertain cases (depending onurgency consideration) where thisperiod could be
extended orreduced.