RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  S/WPDR/W/30 
24 September 2004 
 (04-4016) 
Working Party on Domestic Regulation Original:   Spanish 
   
COMMUNICATION FROM MEXICO 
 
Mexico's Experience of Disciplines on Technical Standards
 
and Regulations in Services  
  
 The following communication, dated 22 Septem ber 2004, from the delegation of Mexico, is 
being circulated to the Members of the Working Party on Domestic Regulation.  
_______________ 
  
I. INTRODUCTION 
1. Article VI.4 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) states: 
 " With a view to ensuring that measures rel ating to qualification requirements and 
procedures, technical standards and licensing requirements do not constitute unnecessary 
barriers to trade in services, the Council for Trade in Services shall, through appropriate 
bodies it may establish, develop any necessary disci plines.  Such disciplines shall aim to 
ensure that such requirem ents are, inter alia: 
 
(a) Based on objective and transparent criteria, such as competence and the ability to  
supply the service; 
 
(b) not more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of the service; 
 
(c) in the case of licensing procedures, not in themselves a restriction on the supply of 
the service. " 
  
2. The purpose of this paper is to provide Members of the Working Party on Domestic 
Regulation with information on the disciplines that Mexico has been implementing for several years 
on technical standards in services, and to make some  proposals as to what the disciplines prescribed to 
in Article VI.4 of the GATS might contain in respect of these standards.  It should be noted that this 
contribution is intended only to encourage discussion of the subject in the WPDR and does not 
prejudge Mexico's position in the negotiation of the disciplines. 
II. BACKGROUND 
3. Discussion of disciplines on technical standards in the multilateral trading system goes back 
to the Tokyo Round of negotiations, held between  1973 and 1979 under the 1947 General Agreement 
on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).  Subsequent to that Round, the obvious impact of technical standards 
on world trade encouraged the decision to negotiate  an agreement seeking to establish rules intended 
primarily to prevent such instruments from becomi ng unnecessary barriers to international trade.  The 
so called Standards Code, or Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, was thus born. S/WPDR/W/30 
Page 2  
 
4. Originally, accession to the Agreement on Techni cal Barriers to Trade was fully voluntary, 
and the number of signatories reached only forty-six.
1  Being an international Treaty concluded under 
the GATT, the Agreement of course applied only to technical specifications, technical regulations and 
standards pertaining to trade in goods, those pe rtaining to services were excluded from its scope. 
5. Mexico ratified the text of the old Agre ement on Technical Barriers to Trade on 
9 February 1988, having joined the GATT in August 1986.   It was published in the Official Journal of 
the Federation on 20 April 1988.  In order to fulfil the commitments undertaken on its accession to the 
GATT, Mexico set about adapting the areas of its dom estic legal framework that were relevant to the 
formulation and issuance of technical standards and regulations.  The result of that process was the Federal Law on Metrology and Standardization (FLM S), published in the Official Journal of the 
Federation on 1 July 1992.  The Law laid down principles, rights and obligations pertaining to 
metrology, standardization (mandatory and volun tary), conformity assessment and accreditation, 
which are still in force today. 
6. The negotiations on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the North 
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) brought to light a need to consider that there may be 
disciplines on technical standards and regulations applicable to services.  The FLMS therefore 
included service-related standards in its scope. 
7. Furthermore, the new principles and obligations regarding technical standards and regulations 
that were laid down in the Marrakech Agreemen t (the GATT 1994, the Agreement on the Application 
of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, and th e new Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade), 
made it necessary for Mexico to adapt its legislati on.  It did so through a reform of the FLMS, 
published in the Official Journal of the Federa tion on 20 May 1997, which of course applied to 
technical standards and regulations on services as well as goods.  
8. Lastly, the FLMS Regulations, published in the Official Journal of the Federation on 
14 January 1999, enlarged on and supplemented the provi sions of the national legislation in this area. 
 III. MEXICO'S LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR TECHNICAL STANDARDS AND 
REGULATIONS 
8. Mexico's legal framework for technical st andards and regulations comprises several 
instruments:  the GATT 1994;  the Agreement on Tec hnical Barriers to Trade;  the Agreement on the 
Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, the relevant articles of the GATS;  the relevant 
chapters of free trade agreements of which Mexico  is a member;  and the FLMS and its Regulations.
2 
9. As already noted, implementation of Mexico's ob ligations with regard to technical standards 
and regulations under various intern ational agreements and treaties is governed by the FLMS and its 
Regulations.  This paper will therefore describ e only the disciplines contained in those two 
instruments.  It will also mention briefly the rules set out in some of the trade agreements to which 
Mexico is a party. 
10. First, it is worth noting the definition of a technical regulation and a technical standard given 
in Article 3 of the FLMS.  According to that pr ovision, a Mexican official standard (or technical 
                                                      
1Australia;  Austria;  Argentina;  Belgium;  Br azil;  Canada;  Chile;  Czechoslovakia;  European 
Communities;  Denmark;  Egypt;  Spain;   United States;  Philippines;  Finl and;  France;  Germany;  Greece;  
Hong Kong, China;  H ungary;  India;  Indonesia;  Ireland;  Israe l;  Italy;  Japan;  Korea,  Luxembourg;  
Malaysia;  Morocco;  Mexico;  New Zealand;  Norway ;  Netherlands;  Pakistan;  Portugal;  Romania;  
Singapore;  Sweden;  Switzerland;  Thailand;  Tunisia;  United Kingdom and Yugoslavia. 
2 International agreements and trea ties are part of Mexico's legal framework because under Article 133 
of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, international treaties signed by the President of the 
Republic with the approval of the Senate form part of the supreme law of the land.  S/WPDR/W/30 
 Page 3 
 
 
regulation) is "a mandatory technical regulation i ssued by the competent ag encies in accordance with 
the purposes laid down in Article 40, which establishes rules, specifications, functions, guidelines, testing methods, characteristics or prescriptions a pplying to a product, process, facility, system, 
activity, service  or method of production or operation,  and those pertaining to terminology, 
symbology, packaging, marking or labelling and to their observance or application". 
 The FLMS's definition of a Mexican standard (or technical standard), is one "which is drawn 
up by a national standardization body or the Minist ry of the Economy under the terms of this Law and 
which lays down, for common and repeated use, rules, specifications, functions, testing methods, 
guidelines, characteristics or prescriptions applying to a product, process, facility, system, activity, 
service  or method of production or operation, and th ose pertaining to terminology, packaging, 
marking or labelling". 
 11. The FLMS provides for a uniform procedure for the drafting and amendment of all technical 
standard or regulation, regardless of whether th ey relate to goods, processes or services.  It 
furthermore lays down seven basic disciplines to be observed when drafting or amending: 
(a) Representativeness:  in the drawing up or amendment of technical standards and 
regulations, there must be participation by all sectors that will be affected by them, 
both in and outside the country.  To this end the FLMS provides for the creation of 
Standardization Committees the membership of which includes manufacturers, producers or service providers ;  distributors;  traders;  consumers or users;  non-
governmental organizations;  scientific and research institutions;  social institutions 
(i.e. trade unions) and, of course, government institutions and agencies. 
(b) Consensus:  all the sectors concerned must  not only discuss technical standards and 
regulations (or amendments to them), but must also reach agreement on them.  There 
is an exception to this rule for technica l regulations:  in the absence of consensus 
these may be approved by an absolute ma jority of the members of the Committee 
responsible for drawing up the regulation in  question, the competent agency having a 
casting vote. 
(c) Transparency:  when a technical standard or regulation is drawn up or amended, 
throughout the process any interested party must be able to find out the content not only of the final document but also of the pr evious drafts.  To this end the FLMS lays 
down the following obligations: 
• At the start of each year, all subjects on which technical standards or 
regulations will be issued must be included in an instrument known as the National Standardization Programme.  This is published annually in the 
Official Journal of the Federation and is notified to the bodies indicated in the international agreements to which Me xico is a party (i.e., WTO Central 
Registry of Notifications); 
• draft technical standards and regulations  must be published in the Official 
Journal of the Federation for consultation by  the public for a period of 60 days.  
The bodies indicated in international agreem ents to which Mexico is a party are 
also notified of the publication of these drafts; 
• any interested party must be free to c onsult the "Regulatory Impact Assessment 
(MIR);
3 
                                                      
3 A document required for every technical regula tion drawn up in Mexico, showing its technical, 
economic and legal viability, which must be approved be the Federal Regulatory Improvement Commission in S/WPDR/W/30 
Page 4  
 
• replies to comments received during the public consultation period must be 
published in the Official Journal of the Federation;  and 
• the final version of the technical standard  or regulation must be published in the 
Official Journal of the Federation and,  as appropriate, notified to the bodies 
indicated in international agreements to which Mexico is a party (i.e., the 
United States and Canadian contact points under NAFTA). 
(d) Non-discrimination:  technical standards and regulations must afford to imported 
goods or services  treatment no less favourable than that granted to the like domestic 
good or service in the same circumstances, and to products from third countries. 
(e) Rationality:  technical regulations must not r estrict trade more than is necessary for 
the attainment of a legitimate objective, taking into account the risks inherent in 
failure to attain it.  Observance of this discipline rests on the drafting of an MIR for 
every technical regulation – not a requirem ent for technical standards, which are 
essentially voluntary. 
(f) Harmonization:  all technical standards a nd regulations must as a rule be based on 
international standards or the relevant part s thereof.  Nevertheless, in keeping with 
the international agreements and treaties to  which it is a party, Mexico may issue a 
technical standard or regulation that has no equivalent or basis in the relevant 
international standards where the latter w ould be an ineffective or inappropriate 
means to fulfil the legitimate objective sought, for example because of fundamental 
climatic, geographical, technological or infrast ructural factors, scientific justification 
or the level of protection considered appropriate. 
(g) Review:  all technical standards and regulati ons in force in Mexico must be reviewed 
at least once every five years in order to determine whether they are obsolete or have 
been overtaken by technology, whether th ey are consistent with international 
standards or, in general, whether the standa rd requires some adjustment or should be 
revoked in the interests of regulatory improvement. 
12. Besides the disciplines included in the LFMN,  the chapters on technical standards and 
regulations in some of the free trade agreements of which Mexico is a member
4 contain similar rules 
and procedures to those in the Law. They also shar e certain features in their regulation of services, all 
these agreements:   (i) Define the term "service", thus restric ting application of the rights and obligations 
under the agreement to sectors falling with in the scope of the agreement;  and 
  (ii) require the Parties to take the necessary st eps to ensure that the rights and obligations 
regarding technical standards and regul ations are likewise observed by State, 
                                                                                                                                                                    
 
order for the competent government agency to publish the draft technical regulation for consultation by the 
public. 
4 There are specific chapters on technical standards and regulations which apply to those pertaining to 
services in the free trade agreements between Canada , the United States of America and the United Mexican 
States (chapter IX); the Republic of Chile and the United Mexican States (chapter 8), the Republic of Nicaragua 
and the United Mexican States (chapter XIV); the Repu blic of Guatemala, the Republic of Honduras, the 
Republic of El Salvador and the United Mexican States (chapter XV); the Oriental Republic of Uruguay and the United Mexican States (chapter IX); the Republic of Bo livia and the United Mexican St ates (chapter XIII); the 
Republic of Costa Rica and the United Mexican States (chapter XI); and the Republic of Colombia, the 
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and th e United Mexican States (chapter XIV).
 
 
  S/WPDR/W/30 
 Page 5 
 
 
provincial and municipal authorities and by  non-governmental organizations which 
are authorized in the country to draw up standards. 
 13. Lastly, all free trade agreements signed by  Mexico which have no specific chapter on 
technical standards and regulations
5 contain some provisions that apply generically to national 
regulations affecting trade in services, which, to a greater or lesser degree, ensure at least that the 
principles of transparency and rationality are observed.  
IV. SOME ELEMENTS TO BE CONSIDERED IN DEVELOPING DISCIPLINES ON 
TECHNICAL STANDARDS IN SERVICES 
 
14. With regard to technical standards and regula tions in the area of services, Mexico is of the 
view that there must be disciplines that ensure co mpliance with the objectives of Article VI.4 of the 
GATS, not only because that Article so requires expr essly, but also because of the growing impact of 
such instruments on the global economy, the dangerous  increase in their application to the detriment 
of free trade and the evidence that many Members already have disciplines which  to a greater or 
lesser degree ensure that rules of this kind  are not used as unnecessary barriers to international trade. 
 15. Some of the elements that Mexico believes should be discussed in defining the content of 
disciplines on technical standards and regulations in services are:   
 (a) Definition of technical standard: since the GATS provides no definition of this term it 
is necessary to determine its meaning and whether it encompasses technical regulations as well. Thereafter, it would be necessary to refer to the definitions given 
in other international agreements admini stered by the WTO (i.e. TBT Agreement), 
and even to definitions of the terms techni cal standard and technical regulation given 
in standards established by international standardization bodies; 
  (b) concept of "unnecessary barrier to trade": it is necessary to evaluate the need to define 
the scope of this concept in the GATS a nd to determine the disciplines needed to 
prevent technical standards and regulati ons from generating such barriers. The 
concept of "necessity test" is particularly important in this context and should be 
reviewed in the light of the GATS provisions; 
  (c) concept of "not more burdensome than n ecessary to ensure the qua lity of the service": 
the development of disciplines on technical standards and regulations necessarily implies consideration and discussion of this c oncept in order to be able to determine 
objectively that a given technical standard or regulation meets a legitimate objective; 
  (d) special and differential treatment: so me countries may need more time, greater 
flexibility or technical assistance to a pply any disciplines developed on technical 
standards and regulations. There should accordingly be discussion of the form in 
which special and differentia l treatment should be granted to developing country 
Members, particularly the least-developed among them; 
  (e)  definition and use of international standa rds: Article VI.5(b) refers to "international 
standards of relevant intern ational organizations" and also  defines what is meant by 
"relevant international organizations". In developing disciplines to apply to technical 
                                                     
 
5 Free Trade Agreement between the State of Is rael and the United Mexican States, Free Trade 
Agreement between the Member  States of the European Free Trade Asso ciation (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway 
and Switzerland) and the United Mexi can States and the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union 
and the United Mexican States. 
 S/WPDR/W/30 
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standards and regulations on services, it will be particularly important to discuss the 
way in which harmonization with intern ational standards should be linked to 
fulfilment of the objectives set forth in Artic le VI.4 of the GATS and hence to the 
presumption that a technical standard or regula tion that is in line with an international 
standard does not create an unnecessary barrier to trade. It might be useful to bear in 
mind that there are relatively few interna tional standards on services and to consult 
international standardization bodies in or der to obtain more information on the 
subject. 
 
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