. /.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/W/70
23 June 1998
(98-2517)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original: English
ISO/IEC GUIDES ON CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT
Note from the European Community
1. With regard to conformity assessment procedures, the first Triennial Review of the operation
and implementation of the Agreement on Technical Ba rriers to Trade (G/TBT/5), recognizes that the
use of common procedures, such as international guides, recommendations or standards in relation to
the operation of accreditation, testing, inspection and certification bodies would be necessary to
achieve the required confidence among Members.  The Committee noted that relevant ISO/IECGuides are useful in contributing to improving efficiency and facilitating the conduct of international
trade. The Committee also noted that difficulties are still faced by certain countries concerning the
practical implementation of a number of Guides.
2. The European Community has in previous notes to the Committee reflected on the usefulness
of the ISO/IEC Guides and their relationship to Article 5 and 6 of the TBT Agreement (document3146, June 1997), as well as the Community's experience in their use (G/TBT/W/43).  The
Community considers that it is imperative that the TBT Committee can reach an agreement on the
relationship of the ISO/IEC Guides to Articles 5 and 6 of the Agreement.  The reasons for this are the
following.
3. The Guides, several of which will be transfor med into international standards in the near
future, can be said to represent an international consensus on fundamental concepts, criteria and
procedures on conformity assessment.  The Guides are, in the view of the Community, completelycompatible with the rules of the TBT Agreement and offer a structured way for their application.
Agreement on the Guides would not only promote a consistent application of the Agreement as well
as facilitating mutual confidence between Members, but more importantly provide a common
language and preference point on conformity assessment.  By pointing to the ISO/IEC Guides on
conformity assessment will also increase transparency and predictability, which are basic principlesunderlying all WTO Agreements.
4. Agreement on the Guides is also necessary if any progress is to be made on discussions
related to conformity assessment procedures and recognition of conformity assessment.  Without a
common basis and platform, in-depth discussions on these important issues will most likely be even
more complex and endanger the possibility of arriving at concrete results that can be beneficial for allMembers.  Therefore, the Community considers that it would basically be futile to embark on
substantive discussions related to conformity assessment procedures and recognition assessment
without agreement on the Guides.
5. These reasons are also based on the experience of the European Community from putting into
place the Single Market.  The proper functioning of the Community's conformity assessment policy,as expressed in the Global Approach, and specific technical harmonization directives related to the
free movement of goods would be not be possible without appropriate instruments to build andG/TBT/W/70
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maintain the necessary level of confidence.  Here, common criteria on conformity assessment bodies,
for example in the form of the EN 45000 series of standards, and mechanisms to ensure transparency,
for example through accreditation, have and are plying a crucial role.  It is fair to say that without
common criteria as a platform for mutual confidence the development of Community conformity
assessment policy in the realization of the Single Market would have been greatly hindered if no madeimpossible.
6. The Community is somewhat surprised to note that certain Members have been reluctant to
the idea of a recommendation on the ISO/IEC Guides, in particular since the accreditation bodies of
several of these Members are signatories to agreements, e.g. ILAC, IAF, APLAC, that have the
ISO/IEC Guides as a fundamental basis and even entered into mutual recognition arrangements on the
basis of the Guides.
7. The Community fully understands the practical difficulties that countries can encounter in
implementing the Guides.  However, organizations such as ILAC, IAF, EA and APLAC are giving
priority to helping developing countries build up thei r technical infrastructure in the form of training
courses, seminars, exchange of personnel etc.  The European Union is running a number of technical
assistance programmes with the aim of setting up and improving for example standardization and
conformity assessment infrastructures.  A negative stance towards the Guides by the Members of the
WTO will only give a wrong message to their national organizations making considerable efforts to
improve the technical infrastructure of their country as an aid to their industry and to facilitate
international trade.
8. It should be made clear that the aim of a recommendation is to identify which Guides can be
considered relevant for the purpose of the TBT Agreement, thus giving visibility to these documentsso that they can constitute a common basis for understanding basic and fundamental concepts on
conformity assessment, but in no terms making the Guides mandatory or imposing additional
obligations on Members.
The Community welcomes the continued exchange of information between Members on their
experience in using international guides and recommendations on conformity assessment.  However,high priority must be given to arriving at an agreement on the relationship of the ISO/IEC Guides to
Articles 5 and 6 of the TBT Agreement.  The Community would therefore like to propose that the
Committee at its next meeting devote the necessary time to carefully examine how agreement on a
recommendation can be arrived at.  Taking into account the technical nature of this issue,
consideration should be given to asking the Technical Working Group on the ISO/IEC Guides to
prepare such a discussion.
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