WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/W/212
27 June 2003
(03-3444)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English
FOLLOW UP TO THE WORKSHOP ON TBT RELATED TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
Communication from New Zealand
I. INTRODUCTION
In the summary report of the Special Workshop on TBT related Technical Assistance earlier
this year a number of key issues were identified in relation to technical assistance, includinginter alia ;
• The importance of raising the profile of the TBT Agreement;
• The importance of coordination and transparency in the delivery of technical assistance;
• The importance of specific needs identification;
• The usefulness of structured and appropriately sequenced assistance in implementing the
TBT Agreement and contributing to sustainability;
• The usefulness of feedback mechanisms to assess assistance.
2 The work of the Committee since the Second Triennial review, including at the Workshop,
has also helped to identify a number of needs and priorities of developing countries in TBT relatedtechnical assistance (for example see the Secretariat’s analysis of the responses to the questionnaire
assisting developing countries to identify and prioritise specific needs in document G/TBT/W/193).
3 In light of the key issues and needs identified so far, a number of operational suggestions
were put forward at the Workshop on how to proceed with the Committee’s work on technical
assistance.  One such example was the possibility of an information database.  Accordingly
New Zealand believes that the challenge now before the Committee is to take forward work ontechnical assistance in a concrete way in advance of the finalisation of the third triennial review.  The
purpose of this current paper is to facilitate Members’ consideration of the Committee’s next steps.
New Zealand is also making a separate proposal to the Committee related to the concept of a database
or an information coordination mechanism.
II. GOOD POLICY PRACTICE IN THE AREA OF TBT RELATED TECHNICAL
ASSISTANCE
4 Sound policy principles and practice in the design, delivery and receipt of technical assistance
projects should assist in Member’s effective implementation of the TBT Agreement.  During the
Workshop the Committee developed a picture of many of the policy issues associated with the
delivery and receipt of technical assistance.    The discussions identified some elements of approachesthat work and those that work less well.  The Committee also heard some ideas on how approaches to
technical assistance could be improved.G/TBT/W/212
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5 Given the effort already made to identify policy principles associated with TBT related
technical assistance, the Committee might wish to consider whether to further develop discussions on
this aspect during the triennial review.  This coul d involve some further elaboration of some of the
policy principles and elements of good practice already identified.
6 The objective of such discussions could be to provide donors with some ideas on possibilities
to improve the design and delivery of programmes and to provide recipients with additional
information on how to get the most benefit from assistance available.
7 Discussions could take the form of sharing of further experiences building on various
elements identified so far in the Committee’s work.  The indicative list of approaches to facilitate
acceptance of the results of conformity assessment incorporated in the results of the second triennialreview (G/TBT/9) might also be considered as a useful model for further work in this area, i.e. general
non binding suggestions aimed at facilitating good practice amongst technical assistance players in
addressing their own specific circumstances.
8 As more specific examples of what an indicative list of approaches could look like, the
Committee could consider attaching the earlier survey to assist developing country members to
identify and prioritise their specific needs in the TBT field (perhaps in an amended format) to the
results of the third triennial review.  This might facilitate technical assistance recipients in ongoing
efforts to update their needs identification.  On the donor side for example the Committee could
consider elaborating on logical sequencing of the implementation of technical assistance projects(New Zealand has made an earlier contribution on this issue, document G/TBT/W/203).  We hope that
other Members may have further suggestions.  We do acknowledge that care would need to be taken
in the development of such general principles not to prejudice the overriding fact that individual
circumstances will differ amongst each donor and recipient.
III. COORDINATION AND TRANSPARENCY IN TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
INFORMATION
9 One theme stemming from the Workshop was the importance of databases containing
information on technical assistance programmes.  The Secretariat has since prepared a useful
overview of the existing databases in the TBT field (document G/TBT/W/207).  New Zealand’s
observation is that there is clearly a lot of information already available.  However, it is also appears it
may be difficult to get an overall picture of the state of assistance from various information sources.A contributing factor to this may be that some of the information available is not easily transferable to
the Committee’s immediate focus of implementation of the TBT Agreement.  In other words there is
not necessarily a ‘shared language’ amongst the different information sources.
10 Another observation is that there seems to be a certain static nature to some of the global
databases.    This is not to deny they aren’t very  useful information sources, but perhaps there is more
that can be done to help the best suited donors and recipients access information in order find each
other to pursue technical assistance possibilities.  Accordingly the appropriate role of the Committee
in facilitating the transmission of such information could be considered.
11 Obviously in considering means to operationalize and improve coordination and transparency
of technical assistance information, for example through a database, it will be necessary to consider
the technical, financial and human resource implications of different proposals.
12 Given these observations it may be useful for the Committee to consider the following
questions in taking forward our discussions.
• What is the objective of a database, for example is it possible for the Committee to construct a
single and complete depository of TBT related technical assistance information?  Or is itG/TBT/W/212
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more useful to consider ways to make better use of existing information, e.g. through better
linking of available information sources without duplicating what is already available?
•  Is the objective of a database to build a historical picture of assistance activities? Or does the
Committee want to provide a conduit for donors and recipients to locate each other and
explore future opportunities?  Note that these two elements are not necessarily be mutuallyexclusive.
• Could the existing system of WTO notifications in various Committees contribute to our
consideration of databases and information coordination tools?
• Is the objective of more uniformity of technical assistance information helpful in creating a
more compete picture of assistance and in facilitating the ability of well suited donors and
recipients in finding each other?  Does the work of the Committee so far, for example in
identifying needs and priorities, provide a basis to developing a more consistent approach tothe description and categorisation of TBT related technical assistance?
• Are there existing technologies and technical capabilities, e.g. the WTO website or the
WTO Central Registry of Notifications projects that are relevant to the Committee’s
deliberations?
13 In light of these questions New Zealand is submitting a separate proposal for an information
coordination tool that we hope will be of interest to the Committee in furthering our work
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