WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/W/189
16 October 2002
(02-5597)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  Spanish
TBT TECHNICAL COOPERATION PROGRAMME
Proposal from Mexico
I. BACKGROUND
1. As part of the outcome of the Second Triennial Review of the TBT Agreement, the
Committee agreed to develop a demand-driven technical cooperation programme so as to ensure that
technical assistance for developing country Members was targeted at specific priorities identified by
the countries themselves.  The Committee considered that this called for an assessment, by the
competent authorities of those Members in order to identify and prioritize each country'sinfrastructure needs and resources.
2. As a first step towards that objective, and on the basis of the provisions of the Agreement, the
Decisions and Recommendations of the Committee (G/TBT/1/Rev.7) and the results of the First and
Second Triennial Reviews (G/TBT/5 and G/TBT/9), the Secretariat designed a questionnaire on
technical assistance, in order to help developing  countries identify their specific needs in the
TBT field and assist the Committee in developing the appropriate technical cooperation programme.
The questionnaire was circulated on 19 March 2002 (G/TBT/W/178) and developing country
Members were asked to send in their replies by 31 July 2002.
3. At the time this paper was submitted, the Secretariat had circulated replies from
42 developing countries.
1
II. CURRENT STATUS OF CAPACITY-BUILDING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
UNDER THE TBT AGREEMENT:  ANALYSIS OF REPLIES TO THEQUESTIONNAIRE
4. The replies show that the 42 countries (including eight least-developed countries)
2 which
responded stand at very different levels of de velopment and have an extremely wide range of
standardization and conformity assessment systems.  Far from hindering our analysis, this yielded
valuable information about the problems common to the developing countries as they work to ensure
effective implementation of and compliance with the TBT Agreement, and also enabled us to single
out a number of specific obstacles that faced each country in its efforts to achieve that goal.
5. Mexico is in a special situation as regards technical assistance, being a donor as well as a
recipient, which has enabled it to both observe and experience the problems confronting developing
                                                     
1 Singapore; Argentina; Macao; China; Brunei Darussalam; Brazil; Peru; Indonesia; Madagascar;
Thailand;  Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu; Colombia; Philippines;Paraguay; Mexico; Kyrgyz Republic;  Chile; Malawi; Lesotho; India; People's Republic of China; Kenya;Oman; Cuba; Chad;  Venezuela; Honduras; Angola; Senegal; Zimbabwe; Mauritius; Saint Vincent and theGrenadines; Jordan; Malaysia; Korea; South Africa; Mongolia; Bangladesh; Ghana; Saint Lucia; Trinidad andTobago; Uganda; and Lebanon in its capacity as observer developing country Member.
2 Madagascar, Malawi, Lesotho, Chad, Angola, Senegal, Bangladesh and Uganda.G/TBT/W/189
Page 2
countries as they try to ensure effective implementation of the TBT provisions.  This prompted
Mexico to take an active part in this exercise – not only by presenting its own replies to the
questionnaire (JOB(02)/99/Add.15), but also by carrying out a comparative analysis of the replies
made by other developing countries.
6. Mexico's conclusion concerning this comparative analysis3 was that the reasons that
prevented developing countries from properly implementing the TBT Agreement were (in order of
importance):
(a) Lack of competent or trained human resources;
(b) lack of legislation, material resources and technical infrastructure;  and
(c) lack of participation by interested sectors.
7. It was also noted that in more than 70 per cent of the replies given under the heading
"Technical assistance and/or technical cooperation activities required" and to question A of the annexentitled "Prioritization of Needs" (including Mexico's replies)
4, developing countries expressed the
need for technical assistance in the form of seminars, internships, workshops, visits, and so forth – all
of which are traditional human resources training activities.
8. This shows that developing countries' overriding need in the technical assistance sphere is to
address the problem of limited knowledge or understanding of the TBT Agreement among officialsinvolved in its implementation.  Nevertheless, it was interesting to note that so far practically all
developing countries have received a great deal of technical assistance in the traditional form of
workshops, seminars, etc.  but that – at least as regards the needs expressed in the questionnaire –
such activities have had a minor, or at any rate not a lasting, impact , since the countries continue
to ask for seminars or workshops that are frequently identical (in terms of the subject-matter) to thosealready held for them in the past.
9. Mexico accordingly decided to put forward th e following proposal aimed at promoting the
sustainability of technical assistance in the TBT fi eld by strengthening the institutions responsible for
implementing the TBT Agreement.
III. PROPOSAL BY MEXICO
10. In Mexico's view, the most critical problem in terms of efficiency of technical assistance in
the capacity-building field (especially for human resources) is the high turnover of staff in
departments responsible for implementing the TBT Agreement in the various developing
countries.  This has led to a permanent shortage, in those departments, of technical capacity to
ensure effective implementation of the Agreement .
11. Indeed, standardization and conformity assessment are tasks that have always required highly
specialized staff with knowledge and skills that can normally be found only in governmentdepartments dealing with implementation of the TBT Agreement.  As is so often the case, government
                                                     
3 The methodology used was a comparative table cont aining the developing countries' replies to each
question, with the same headings as the questionnaire (“Current situation”, “Specific problems, difficulties
and/or interests “ and “Technical assistance and/or cooperation activities required”).  Using a cause/effectdiagram, the replies under “Specific problems, difficulties and/or interests” were then listed in descending orderof frequency.
4 It is important to note that Mexico's reply to the questionnaire (document JOB(02)/99/Add.15)
addresses technical assistance needs th at are not necessarily compatible with the proposal set forth in this
document.G/TBT/W/189
Page 3
officials who have received technical assistance from donor countries or organizations become
attractive to and are usually enticed into joining the private sector, because of the economic
advantages it can offer.
12. Hence technical assistance to developing countries in the form of seminars, workshops, etc.
has had the obvious disadvantage of enhancing solely human resource capability, withoutpermanently strengthening the technical capacity of the institutions responsible for applying the
TBT Agreement.  Officials who resign take their experience and knowledge away with them, leaving
hardly any trace of the skills they acquired in the institutions themselves.
13. Mexico has a standardization and conformity assessment system, and it too experienced a
high turnover of staff as the system evolved.  In order to address this problem, in 1997 the Mexican
Government decided that the Ministry of the Economy's General Directorate of Standards (DGN)
5
would be the first government department to be go verned by a quality management system certified as
conforming to the ISO9002-equivalent Mexican standard and covering the Directorate's full range of
services and operations.
14. As a result, Mexico has succeeded for the fi rst time in systematizing and documenting the
DGN's various responsibilities, a nd in particular the implementation of obligations under the
TBT Agreement, thus diminishing the impact of turnover in trained personnel.  Indeed, theDirectorate now has documents setting out guidelines that explain to new officials what their specific
duties involve and the procedures and principles to be observed in the conduct of their activities.
15. Mexico accordingly proposes – as a key component of the technical assistance
programme  being developed by the TBT Committee, and specifically in respect of human resources
training – the incorporation of a recommendation that assistance to developing countries be
directed at advising them on the creation of a quality assurance system (based on the relevant
international standards)
6 for government departments in charge of applying the
TBT provisions .
16. This would enable the developing countries to document their procedures and, as part of that
process, clearly to specify the rights and obligations under the TBT Agreement for the direct benefitof the institutions concerned, regardless of how long each staff member remains.  If such systems
were certified, it would be possible, moreover, to check periodically on the degree of implementation
of the Agreement in developing countries, thus facilitating an objective assessment of related
problems and possibilities for improvement.
17. If the proposal were accepted, Mexico thinks that it could be implemented in the following
stages:  (i) exchange of information with th e departments in charge of implementing the
TBT Agreement in the various Members that have certified quality assurance systems;  (ii) drafting ofguides or guidelines for the adoption of quality assurance systems in government departments of
developing countries (for which ISO assistance might be useful);  (iii) financing of advisory services
for departments responsible for implementing the TBT Agreement in developing countries in order to
                                                     
5 The DGN's main functions are to administer Mexico's legal metrology system; to develop technical
regulations in spheres such as user safety, trade in formation, trade practices and metrology, and voluntary
standards where there is no national standardizing body;  to serve as the technical secretariat for the National
Standardization Commission;  to take part in the accred itation of conformity assessment bodies within its sphere
of competence;  to chair committees dealing with international standardizing and conformity assessment bodies;and to serve as a national contact point for the TBT Agreement, the SPS Agreement and the various tradeagreements signed by Mexico.
6 It would be appropriate in this connection to consider whether the TBT Committee might recommend
that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) develop a standard relating to quality management
in government departments.G/TBT/W/189
Page 4
help them document their procedures and prepare for certification in due course;  and (iv) financing of
the certification of quality management systems.
18. In Mexico's view, this proposal offers the following advantages over traditional forms of
technical assistance directed at human resources training:
• It promotes the strengthening of institutions (permanent benefit), in addition to
providing training for their staff (temporary benefit);
• it optimizes resources by establishing a common objective (one type of advisory
service instead of a whole series of seminars on the same topic);
• it makes it easier to benefit from experience gained in documenting quality
management systems, by enabling the various countries involved to exchange
manuals, instructions, and so forth;  and
• it facilitates evaluation of the effectiveness of technical assistance by providing for a
certification procedure that encourages continuing improvement.
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