. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/Notif.00/312
26 July 2000
(00-3082)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade
NOTIFICATION
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6.
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   THE NETHERLANDS
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):           
2. Agency responsible:   Ministry of Economic Affairs
Agency or authority designated to handle comments regarding the notification shall be
indicated if different from above:   National Enquiry Point – EC WTO TBT Enquiry Point
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X], 2.10.1 [    ], 5.6.2 [    ], 5.7.1 [    ], other:           
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):   Passenger cars
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Decree of (    ) Laying
Down Regulations Regarding the Labelling of the Energy Consumption of Passenger Cars
(Decree on the Labelling of the Energy Consumption of Passenger Cars).
6. Description of content:   The Decree on the labelling of the energy consumption of
passenger cars serves in the first instance to implement Directive 1999/94/EC of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1999 relating to the availability of
consumer information on fuel economy and CO2 emissions in respect of the marketing of
new passenger cars (OJ 2000, L 12).  The provisions of the draft decree, which are anextension of the minimum requirements of the directive, are notified, insofar as these
provisions contain technical regulations pursuant to Directive 98/34/EC.  In one respect, the
provisions of the draft decree clearly extend beyond the minimum requirements of the
directive.  The label (to be affixed to or close to passenger cars) and the mandatory fuel
consumption guide must provide, in addition to the absolute figures required by the
directive relating to fuel consumption and discharge of CO2, information on the relative
energy efficiency of the relevant models of new passenger car (Article 2, first and secondparagraphs, and Annexes 1 and 4).  In simple terms, the relative energy efficiency of a car is
the extent to which this car is more or less economical than a car of similar dimensions.
The relative energy efficiency shall be indicated by an energy efficiency class in the form of
a colour code.  The obligations contained in the draft decree can be briefly summarized as
follows: the supplier (usually the importer of the passenger car) shall ensure that the labels
are made available to car dealers (Article 2); the car dealers shall subsequently ensure that
the labels are indicated to the end user (Article 6);  the fuel consumption guides shall be
compiled by the Road Traffic Office, on the basis of the information provided by the
suppliers (Articles 3 and 7), and made available free of charge to the car dealers via the
suppliers.G/TBT/Notif.00/312
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7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:
Insofar as the decree contains quantitative import restrictions or measures of equivalent
effect, these measures are justified by precisely the greater environmental effects that the
special Dutch measures are expected to have.  The stating of the energy efficiency class onthe label and in the fuel consumption guide offers consumers the chance to make a simple
(by means of the colour code) informed choice of the most efficient passenger car in a given
size class.  Moreover, colour-coded labelling using green, yellow and red will have a greater
effect on consumers than numbers showing the absolute consumption.  It is thus anticipated
that this will create an incentive to purchase and market energy-efficient cars, which will
contribute to a reduction in the discharge of CO
2.
8. Relevant documents:
- Act on Energy-Saving in Appliances
- Articles 4a and 4b of the Road Traffic Act 1994
9. Proposed date of adoption:  1 October 2000
Proposed date of entry into force:  10 October 2000 (for part of the articles, the rest
18 January 2001)
10. Final date for comments:   28 September 2000
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [ X] or address, e-mail and telefax
number of the other body: