WORLD TRADE G/TBT/Notif.97.688
17October 1997
ORGANIZATION
(97-4517)
Committee onTechnical Barriers toTrade
NOTIFICATION
Thefollowing notification isbeing circulated inaccordance withArticle 10.6.
1. Member toAgreement notifying: NETHERLANDS
Ifapplicable, name oflocalgovernment involved (Articles 3.2and7.2):
2. Agency responsible: Ministry ofJustice
Agency orauthority designated tohandle comments regarding thenotification canbe
indicated ifdifferent from above: National enquiry point
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X],2.10.1 [],5.6.2 [],5.7.1 [],other:
4. Products covered (HSorCCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICSnumbers maybeprovided inaddition, where applicable): Breath testing equipment,
blood taking equipment (hypodermic syringes, sampling tubes, packaging, phials), breath
testtubes, breath testing equipment.
5. Title, number ofpages andlanguage(s) ofthenotified document: Regulation ofthe
Minister forJustice Amending theBreath Test Regulation, theBlood andUrine
Sampling Regulation, theProvisional Breath TestRegulation andtheRegulation onthe
Type Designation ofBreath Testing Equipment inConnection withtheAmendment to
theShipping Traffic Act(Alcohol TestonSailing under theInfluence ofAlcohol)
6. Description ofcontent: Thepresent subject isidentical tothesubject ofthedraft
Decree, amending theAlcohol TestDecree inConnection withtheAmendment tothe
Shipping Traffic Act, which wasnotified atthesame time asthisRegulation. The
Shipping Traffic Acthaslongsince stipulated thatitisanoffence tooperate aship
under theinfluence ofacertain amount ofalcohol. Pursuant totheActof
10April 1997, Bulletin ofActsandDecrees 200,theRegulation on"Sailing under the
Influence ofAlcohol" hasbeenamended inafewplaces tofacilitate thetracing ofthis
offence andimplement punitive measures. Inthislight, thealcohol content inblood and
breath isestablished whereby (ineachcase) itisforbidden tooperate orbeincontrol of
aship(seeArticle 27,paragraph 2oftheShipping Traffic Act). Inaddition tothe
existing breath test,twonewtypes ofalcohol testwere alsointroduced inthisregard:
theblood test(Article 28a,paragraphs 5to10inclusive) andtheso-called provisional
breath test,which regardless ofduesuspicion, maybecarried outbyroutine check
(Article 28).ThenewRegulation on"Sailing under theInfluence ofAlcohol" isidentical
totheexisting Regulation on"Driving under theInfluence ofAlcohol" forroadtraffic,
asperthe1994 Road Traffic Act.Thisalsomeans thattheimplementing regulations
based ontheRoad Traffic Act,which issue rules forthedifferent types ofalcohol test
mayalsobedeemed applicable to"Sailing under theInfluence ofAlcohol".
./.G/TBT/Notif.97.688
Page2
6. Description ofcontent (cont'd):Thisapplies inter aliatotheprovisional Breath Test
Regulation, theBreath TestRegulation, theRegulation ontheType Designation of
Breath Testing Equipment andtheRegulation onBlood andUrine Sampling. These
Regulations have already been notified. Thedraft Regulation stated under point 5,
therefore, declares thefouraforementioned Regulations tobeapplicable toshipping
traffic byreferring totheShipping Traffic Actwherever reference isstillmade to"the
Act" (i.e.the1994 Road Traffic Act). According totheDutch Government, such
broadening ofthesphere ofapplication oftechnical regulations which areincluded in
another Regulation isalsoprobably deemed tobeatechnical regulation which must be
notified. Thepresent Regulation extends thesphere ofapplication ofthetechnical
regulations intheBreath TestRegulation (Articles 2to7inclusive), theBlood andUrine
sampling Regulation (Articles 3,4and6),theprovisional Breath Test Regulation
(Article 2)andtheRegulation ontheType Designation ofBreath Testing Equipment
(Article 1).Therelevant Articles establish requirements forequipment andother
auxiliary devices used forcarrying outtheblood and/or breath test.Forthesakeof
clarity, itisindicated thatthepresent Regulation carries noamendment tothese
requirements interms ofcontent.
7. Objective andrationale: Thedraft Regulation wasestablished intheinterests of
maintaining public order andsafety. Thetechnical regulations stated inpoint 6apply
without distinction tonational andimported products. With regard toforeign products
which conform totherequirements established inthecountry oforigin, theexisting four
Regulations contain provisions relating tomutual recognition (Article 24Decree on
Alcohol Tests, Article 15Blood andUrine Sampling Regulation, Article 10Breath Test
Regulation, Article 2,paragraph 2,provisional Breath Test Regulation, Article 1,
paragraph 2Regulation ontheType Designation ofBreath Testing Equipment).
8. Relevant documents: Actof10April 1997, Bulletin ofActsandDecrees 200,withthe
newArticles 27,28and28aoftheShipping Traffic Act,theprovisional Breath Test
Regulation, thebreath testRegulation, theRegulation ontheType Designation ofBreath
Testing Equipment andtheblood andurine sampling Regulation.
9. Proposed dateofadoption: 23December 1997
Proposed dateofentry intoforce: 25December 1997
10. Final dateforcomments: 22December 1997
TheNetherlands willproceed toimplement theproposed measure after45days
ifnocomments orrequests forextension ofthetime-limit havebeenreceived from other
Members within thattime.
11. Texts available from: National enquiry point []oraddress andtelefax number ofother
body: