WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/W/230
17 October 2003
(03-5494)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English
THE THIRD TRIENNIAL REVIEW OF THE TBT AGREEMENT
Submission by Thailand
1. Thailand would like to make the following contributions to provide some additional ideas
with respect to the issues of transparency, suppl iers' declaration of conformity and equivalency.
I. TRANSPARENCY
2. Thailand noticed with many thanks to the Committee and the Secretariat that a lot of work
had been done with a view to facilitating the implementation of transparency provisions, such as:
(a) A number of decisions and recommendations (G/TBT/1/Rev.8)
(b) A special meeting on procedures for information exchange to be held on a biennial
basis in order to give persons responsible for information exchange, including
persons responsible for enquiry points and notifications, the opportunity to discuss
the activities and problems relating to information exchange and to review
periodically how well notification procedures work.
(c) Monthly tables of notifications issued since January 2001 to facilitate the tracing and
studying of notifications submitted by Members
(d) A booklet on transparency provisions of the TBT Agreement
(e) Implementation of Article 10.6 by the Secretariat
However, we have noticed some problems/difficulties as follows:
(a) Regarding actions undertaken by the Secretariat to further the implementation of
Article 10.6 especially  to draw the attention of developing country Members to any
notifications relating to products of particular interest to them, the Secretariat had
requested
(i) Developing country Members to provide the Secretariat with a list of
products of particular interest to them (around of 20 items) as indicated by
HS numbers containing 2 digits and also the electronic mail address of an
authority designated to receive such notifications
(ii) Members when notifying draft technical regulations and conformity
assessment procedures under Articles 2.9.2, 2.10.1, 5.6.2 and 5.7.1 to
provide, under item 4 of the notification form, HS numbers of the products
covered, where applicable.G/TBT/W/230
Page 2
After that the Secretariat, based on th e information provided by the developing
country Members and the notifying Members, will transmit the relevant
notifications (in the original language received) by electronic mail to thedesignated authorities of devel oping country Members concerned.
Thailand agrees with the Secretariat document which stated that in the year
2002, most of developing countries do not properly fill in the notification
form, particularly concerning the HS Code or ICS of the products covered by
the proposed technical regulations.  It was remarked that those Members may
not be technically able to do so.  More over, we have also observed that most
Members, both develope d and developing countries, do not provide HS
numbers of the products covered under item 4 of the notification form when
notifying their draft technical re gulations and conformity assessment
procedures.  Some Members provide IC S numbers instead of HS numbers and
some provide both HS and ICS numbers.  This poses problem to the work of
the Secretariat.
(b) Under item 8, Relevant documents in the notification form, there are several items to
be filled in namely (a) Publication where notice appears, (b) Proposal and basic
documents to which proposal refers, (c) Publication in which proposal will appears
when adopted, and (d) Whenever practicable, give reference to relevant international
standard.  It is our remark that most of the notifications of various WTO Membersindicate only “Publication in which proposal will appear when adopted”.
3. Thailand would like to propose that in order to solve these types of problems, WTO
Secretariat should check the notifications submitted by Members for completeness and correctness
according to the notification obligations before circ ulating them to Members so as to avoid the same
errors.
4. Regarding the language used for making comments or request to enquiry points and in the
replies to comments made, Thailand would like to propose that it should be done in the WTO official
languages.  For Thailand, English is preferred.
5. Thailand would like to express her appreciation to proposals in the Secretariat’s
non-paper (JOB(03)/188) which aim to solve the problems and to further improving theimplementation of the transparency provisions.
II. SUPPLIERS' DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY (SDOC)
6. Thailand would like to reiterate its view that the development of conformity assessment
procedures in both the regulatory and voluntary sectors will lead towards supplier’s declaration. This
path would help cut down the expenses and burden of the business sector, and improve itscompetitiveness. To attain the goal of suppliers' decl aration, it is necessary that relevant international
guides must be put to use. The benefits obtained consist of the upgrading of the entire system, and
maintenance of quality of the system and personnel, which would accelerate the entry into mutual
recognition, adding to trade facilitation.
7. It should not be forgotten however that successful implementation of suppliers’ declaration
must be backed up by a good consumer protection law and must involve the business sector’s
obligation, such as the product liability law.
8. Developing countries may not yet have a liability law in force, and to pass a new law or revise
an existing law can be time consuming for some countries.  However, such a law is a necessity.G/TBT/W/230
Page 3
9. The Committee may wish to consider ways to assist developing countries in their proceeding
towards supplier’s declaration and acquiring the supportive law.
10. Thailand also would like to propose to have a more in-depth discussion on SDoC regarding
the use, the identification of circumstances where it would be appropriate and in the developing
country context.
III. EQUIVALENCY
11. The Committee reiterated the importance of giving positive consideration to accepting as
equivalent technical regulations of other Members as provided for under Article 2.7,  and there have
been views that equivalency could contribute to reducing trade obstacles, where international
standards do not exist or are ineffective or inappropriate, and that equivalency should only be used as
interim measure until a suitable international standard could be made available.  Thailand agrees with
all those views mentioned above as the acceptance as equivalent of technical regulations of otherMembers, and is provided under the Industrial Product Standards Act of Thailand.  However, in
practice, consideration of technical issues is required prior to conclusion as "equivalent".  In some
cases, this must be submitted to technical groups, and would take some time.
12. The Committee may consider compiling informa tion on Members' experiences in this regard
in order to lay out actions to be taken to fulfil the obligation of Article 2.7.
13. Thailand also agrees with the proposal to invite the ISO to share its action on a move to
declare specific national, regional or international standards as equivalent rather than setting out one
standard as the sole option.
__________