RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/L/471
3 September 2001
(01-4189)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade
PROBLEMS FACED BY DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IN INTERNATIONAL
STANDARDS AND CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT
Discussions of the TBT Committee in the context of the
Second Triennial Review of the TBT Agreement
Report by the Chairman
I. INTRODUCTION
1. At its special Session on 18 October 2000, the General Council referred to the relevant
WTO bodies a number of implementation-related issues.  Among these, the General Council
requested the TBT Committee "to examine the problems faced by developing countries in bothinternational standards and conformity assessment, and to explore possible solutions in the context of
the ongoing Triennial Review."
2. The former Chairman of the TBT Committee has reported to the General Council at its
special Session in December 2000 on the outcome of that Review (G/L/422).  As the currentChairman, I would like to further report to th e General Council on how the implementation issues
referred to the TBT Committee have been resolved.
II. OUTCOME OF THE SECOND TRIENNIAL REVIEW
3. The TBT Committee concluded its Second Trie nnial Review of the Implementation and
Operation of the Agreement on 10 November 2000 (G/TBT/9).  Among other things, it examined theproblems faced by developing countries in international standards and conformity assessment, and
explored possible solutions.  Relevant decisions and recommendations were made.  I summarize
below the main conclusions by the Committee in these areas.
4. The Committee noted that international standards, guides and recommendations were
important elements of the Agreement and played a significant role in its implementation.  In order to
improve the quality of international standards and to ensure the effective application of the
Agreement, it adopted a set of principles for international standards development.  These principles
aim at ensuring transparency, openness, impartiality and consensus procedures;  the relevancy,
effectiveness and coherence of international standards;  and that developing country interests aretaken into account.  The dissemination of these principles would encourage the various international
bodies to clarify and strengthen their rules and procedures on standards development, including those
relating to effective participation.  The Committee agreed that constraints on developing countries, in
particular, to effectively participate in standards development, should be taken into consideration in
the standards development process.  Tangible ways of facilitating developing countries participationin international standards development should be sought.  Provisions for capacity building and
technical assistance within international standardizing bodies were important in this context.
5.  To assist in resolving the problem of participation, the Committee noted that it was important
to prioritise the international standardization activities related to products or subject-matter ofparticular interest to developing countries.  It was critical for developing country Members, as part ofG/L/471
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their national consultation, to assess products/sectors of priority interest to them for international
standardization, so that resources could be appropriat ely targeted.  It was suggested that international
standardizing bodies should seek to secure greater developing country participation as chairpersons or
secretariats in various technical committees, including, where appropriate, rotation of chairs and
secretariats.  Another solution was to facilitate effective participation by means of informationtechnologies, such as using email and video conferencing as alternatives to traditional meetings.  Such
an approach could also provide solutions to the financial constraints faced by developing countries
regarding their participation in international standa rdization.  Increasing awareness and co-ordination
at the national level among stakeholders with respect to the importance of international standards
related to trade interests could help to strengthen the financial and human resources of national
standardization bodies, thus enhancing their effectiveness in the international standardization process.
Regional cooperation could also contribute to the efficient and effective use of resources and act as auseful way to influence the international standardization process.
6. In the area of conformity assessment, the Committee noted that developing country exporters,
in particular SMEs, in some cases found themselves faced with conformity assessment requirements
in export markets that were difficult to meet.  This could be due to the limited physical and technicalresources for national conformity assessment;  insufficient number of accredited laboratories at the
national or regional level;  high costs as well as legal difficulties in obtaining foreign accreditation;
difficulties in establishing internationally recognized accreditation bodies;  difficulties in participating
in international conformity assessment systems;  as  well as difficulties related to the implementation
of ISO/IEC guides on conform ity assessment procedures.
7. The Committee noted the technical and financial assistance already being provided by a
number of national and international bodies to developing countries, such as the training of
conformity assessment practitioners;  training packages focussed on establishment of accreditation
and certification bodies;  the design of quality strategies targeting policy-makers, conformityassessment practitioners and industry;  as well as the funding of developing country participation in
regional and international meetings of conformity assessment systems.  The Committee also noted the
work that was being conducted at the regional level to address the various common concerns relating
to conformity assessment, such as the pooling of re sources to facilitate accreditation at the regional
level, and eventually at the international level.
8. The Committee noted that it took a long period of time for a country to develop a national
conformity assessment system.  Different infrastructure might be needed at different stages of
development and for different sectoral needs.  Priorities needed to be identified by developing
countries concerning certain basic elements of a domestic conformity assessment infrastructure.
Technical assistance in this area was an evolving process, given the need to nurture skills and
institutional development over a long time-frame.  In order to build a structure for domesticconformity assessment, which could ultimately facilitate the recognition of conformity assessment
results, it was important to raise awareness and develop a national strategy for quality management.
Assistance to implement the relevant international guides and standards could be useful to obtain the
confidence of the competence of conformity assessment bodies by import markets, to facilitate
entering into negotiations of MRAs and participating in international systems.  Technical assistance of
this kind could be enhanced through regional and international cooperation.
9. In order to address the difficulties encountered by developing country Members in the
implementation of the Agreement, including in areas of international standards and conformity
assessment, the Committee agreed to develop a demand-driven Technical Cooperation Programme.
III. FOLLOW-UP OF THE SECOND TRIENNIAL REVIEW
10. Since the conclusion of the Second Triennial Review, progress has been made relating to the
Committee's effort in developing its Technical Cooperation Programme.  It has started to conduct anG/L/471
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information gathering exercise and to design a survey to assist developing country Members to
identify and prioritise their specific needs in the TBT field.  Fifteen Members have submitted
information on the technical assistance activities they needed or provided.  The Secretariat has been
requested to compile these submissions and to prepare a draft survey questionnaire to assist needs
identification for the consideration of the Committee at its upcoming meeting on 8-9 October 2001.
11. The Committee will continue to develop th e Technical Cooperation Programme with the
following steps:  the consideration of the existing technical assistance activities by multilateral,
regional and bilateral organizations with a view to the effective and efficient development of technical
assistance programmes;  enhancement of co-operation between donors;  reassessment of needs in light
of agreed priorities;  identification of technical assistance partners and financial considerations.  The
progress made in implementing the programme will be assessed by the Committee in the context ofthe Third Triennial Review and the Committee will reflect its work on the programme in its Annual
Report to the General Council.
12. In addition to the Technical Cooperation Pr ogramme, the Committee has also carried out a
number of other activities related to seeking possible solutions to developing countries' problems ininternational standards and conformity assessment.  In June, a special meeting on procedures for
information exchange was held, when 22 developing country capital based experts were funded to
participate.  A session was devoted to the enhancement of electronic transmission of information, and
discussions included how electronic means could facilitate the participation by developing countries
in international standards development.  Accordin g to the decision made at the Second Triennial
Review, at its March and June meetings, ISO, CODEX, ITC and UNIDO were invited to provide
updates on their activities and on the ways in which they sought to ensure effective participation of
Members, and particularly of developing country Members, in their activities.  On two occasions, a
number of developing country Members consulted with representations of these organizations on
possible technical assistance projects.  The IEC, OIML and World Bank have been invited to updateat the next Committee meeting.  The Committee also continued to examine issues relating to
conformity assessment, such as on mutual recognition agreements.
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