. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/2/Add.56
22 October 1999
(99-4610)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English
IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE AGREEMENT
ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE
Communication from India
Addendum
1. The following statement under Article 15, paragraph 2 of the Agreement has been received
from the Government of India.
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2. The Ministry of Commerce, Government of India is the nodal Ministry for implementing and
administering the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade.  The contact address is:
Ministry of Commerce
Government of India
Udyog BhavanNew Delhi - 110 001
India
3. Bureau of Indian Standards, the National Standards Body of India has been designated as the
WTO-TBT Enquiry Point in India by the Ministry of Commerce.  The contact address is:
Director, Technical Information Services Centre
Bureau of Indian Standards9 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
New Delhi - 110 002
India
Tel: +91 11 323 0910
Fax: +91 11 323 4062
Email: bis@vsnl.com
4. All enquiries about Indian Standards from Members and requests for draft standards,
technical regulations, conformity assessment procedures notified by India are being responded to bythe above enquiry point.
5. Bureau of Indian Standards has also accepted the Code of Good Practice for preparation,
adoption and application of standards.  The same has been notified under the WTO Notification
No. G/TBT/CS/N/26, dated 29 January 1996.  In fu lfilment of obligations under the Code, BIS is
printing a Programme of Work on a yearly basis and updating the same on a monthly basis.  Theinformation about the existence of Programme of Work is regularly sent to the ISO/IEC InformationG/TBT/2/Add.56
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Centre and also published at regular interval s in "Standards India", and "Standards Monthly
Additions", monthly publications on st andardization brought out by BIS.
6. A period of 60 days is normally allowed for submission of written comments on draft
standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.  The information announcing
the drafts under circulation for comments is published in "Standards Monthly Additions".  The drafttechnical regulations and conformity assessment procedures of BIS are also notified to WTO.
7. On request from Member countries, a copy of the draft technical regulations and conformity
assessment procedures is provided and no fee is charged for this service at present.  On specific
request from Members the final date of submission of comments has also been extend in certain cases.
8. In order to implement the Agreement, BIS is trying to harmonize the Indian Standards with
international standards as far as possible.  So far BIS has harmonized 3,700 standards with
international standards such as ISO/IEC,Codex A limentarius Commission etc.  Standards have also
been harmonized with regional organizations such as the European Commission.
9. As per Article 10.10 of the Agreement, Ministry  of Commerce, Government of India is the
nodal ministry for implementation on the national level of the provisions concerning notification
procedures except those included in Annex 3 of the Agreement.
10. All technical regulations are published in the Official Gazette of India, a copy of which can be
obtained from the Enquiry Point.
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