G/SPS/GEN/1891  
 
22 March  2021 
(21-2364) Page: 1/3 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  Original: English  
 
 
GSO REPORT  ON SPS ACTIVITIES  
GSO REPORT TO THE WTO  COMMITTEE ON  SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES  
The follow ing communication, received on 19 March  2021, is being circulated at the request of the  
secretariat of the  GCC Standardization Organization  (GSO). 
 
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1  INTRODUCTION  
1.1.  GCC Standardization Organization (GSO) ( http://www.gso.org.sa/ ) is a non -profit Regional 
Standardization Organization (RSO), established by the resol ution of the GCC Supreme Council 
(http://www.gcc -sg.org/ ) (22nd Session, Muscat, Oman, 30 -31 December 2001) and assumed its 
operation in May 2004 with membership of the governments of the Kingdom of Bahrain, the State 
of Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,  and the United Arab Emirates . 
1.2.  The mission of GSO is to assist the States of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the 
Gulf (GCC) ( https://www.gcc -sg.org/en -us/Pages/default.aspx ) to achieve the objectives set forth 
in its Charter an d in the GCC Economic Agreement by unifying the various standardization activities 
and following up implementation and compliance with the same in cooperation and coordination with 
the standardization bodies in the member states (NSBs) to develop the produ ction and service 
sectors, foster the intra -GCC trade, protect consumer s, the environment and public health, enhance 
the GCC economy and its competitiveness and meet the requirements of Gulf Custom Union and 
Gulf Common Market.  
2  THE GSO QUALITY INFRASTRUCTU RE FRAMEWORK (GQI)  
2.1.  GSO has issued more than 23 ,480 Unified Gulf Standards and Technical Regulations 
(https://www.gso.org.sa/en/standards/standards -store/ ) so far through 44  Technical Comm ittees 
and Sub-Technical Committees ( https://www.gso.org.sa/en/standards/technical -committees/ ) 
representing all GSO member states and covering most of the sectors in GCC member states. 
2.2.  GSO developed the GCC Conformity Assessment Scheme 
(https://www.gso.org.sa/en/conformity/gcc -conformity -assessment -scheme/ ) in pursuance of 
reducing the technical ba rriers of trade and facilitating the free movement of commodities across 
borders within the GCC member states and the rest of the world.  
− Within the framework of the Gulf System for Safety Monitoring of Products in the 
GCC Common Market, GSO has issued Horizontal Technical Regulations , Vertical Technical 
Regulations , as well as other Technical Guides . Two Technical Regulations (TRs) have been 
implemented with the Gulf Conformity Marking ( https://www.gso.org.sa/en/conformity/gcc -
conformity -mark/ ), namely, the GSO Technical Regulation on Toys and the GSO Technical 
Regulation on Low Voltage Electrical Equipment and Appliances ; 
− A time plan for the issuance more of GSO Technical Regulations for Product Categories has 
been developed including industrial products safety, cosmetics, energy consumption 
efficiency, hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment, electromag netic 
compatibility, water conservation equipment, machinery, lifts, construction products, 
medical devices, equipment for explosive atmospheres, simple pressure vessels, personal 
protective equipment, gas appliances, playgrounds, plastic materials and art icles intended G/SPS/GEN/1891  
 
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  to come into contact with foodstuffs, non-automatic weighing instruments, measuring 
instruments, and halal products . Many of these TRs are at the final approval stage and have 
been already notified to the WTO; 
− More than 440 ,000 Conformity Ce rtificates for Vehicle, tiers, Motorcycle have been issued 
through the Electronic Conformity Certificate Scheme (ECCS) 
(https://www.gso.org.sa/en/conformity/confor mity-certificates -authentication/ ). GSO is the 
notifying authority by decision of  the Board of Directors, May 2013. GSO approved 
69 Notified Bodies in many countries around the world. More than 37 ,419 Conformity 
Certificates have been issued through the GC C Conformity Tracking System 
(https://www.gso.org.sa/en/conformity/conformity -tracking -system/ ). Additionally, 
971 free Proficiency Testing Programs (PTs) for 653 GCC laborato ries have been organized 
as one of the main activities of the Gulf Association for Laboratories (GCCLAB) 
(https://www.gso.org.sa/en/conformity/gulf -association -for-laboratories/ ), which is an 
open network for laboratories and supporting companies operating in the GCC member 
states. It was established as an initiative of the GSO and the recommendations of the first 
GCC conference for Laboratories proficiency (Dubai, 13 Ma rch 2013).  
2.3.  GSO established the GCC Accreditation Center (GAC) ( https://www.gac.org.sa/en/ ) which 
obtained the international recognition in June 2016. Currently, GAC is an independent organization 
which provides ac creditation services in the areas of calibration, measurement, testing, inspection 
and certification, commonly known as conformity assessment, to support the GCC joint works and 
the national economy, and to facilitate trade in all GCC member states, in add ition to Yemen.  
2.4.  GSO has created and hosted the GULFMET ( https://www.gulfmet.org/ ) as a Regional Metrology 
Organization (RMO), bringing together National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) of the United Arab 
Emirates, Kingd om of Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, State of Kuwait, and Yemen. 
The International Committee of Weights and Measures (CIPM) granted provisional acceptance of 
GULFMET as a Regional Metrology Organization (RMO) in accordance with the procedur es of the 
JCRB and within the meaning of the CIPM MRA on its meeting No. 104 (Paris, 15 -16 October 2015).  
2.5.  GSO is qualifying specialists in NSBs, private, and government sectors in GSO member states 
in the field of standardization and its related activities . GSO established the GCC Standardization 
Training Center ( https://www.gso.org.sa/en/training/gcc -standardization -training -center/ ). 
An annual Training Plan is designed  to meet the needs and requirements of the NSBs through highly 
experienced and Qualified experts in cooperation with NSBS, regional, and international 
standardization organizations. Till now, GSO has trained and qualified more than 14 ,000 participants 
through 500  training programs.  
3  INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE  
3.1.  GSO's IT systems are integrated with many international and regional standardization 
organizations. Three initiatives have been discussed and approved between GSO and ISO, including: 
ISO API Gateway for fetching ISO Standards metadata and files, ISO Global Directory, 
Standardization Identity Federation (SIF), and Standards Authoring using XML.  
3.2.  Within the adoption agreement signed between GSO and  International Electrotechnical 
Commission  (IEC), Shanghai,  2019, the IEC provides the GSO access to the FTP server of all 
IEC standards with a generic watermark and via the Library Server. GSO and IEC have started 
already their discussion about using the IE API Gateway to access to the metadata and unprotected 
standards on behalf of GSO members which GSO is hosting their National  Standards Stores such as 
Oman and Kingdom of Bahrain. On the other hand, GSO signed the copyright license agreements 
with CEN -CENELEC by which both sides have full access to metadate of each other. Moreover, 
GSO and ASTM International signed the IT integr ation agreement for the same purpose.  
3.3.  Such integrations enable GSO to develop a unified platform to search different Standard 
catalogues and facilitate the adoption process for standards at the GCC level.  
3.4.  In addition to that, GSO has developed many platfor ms and e -services 
(https://www.gso.org.sa/en/e -services/e -services -catalogue/ ) and keep working on their 
contentious development and improvements to meet the needs of the member states. G/SPS/GEN/1891  
 
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  4  GSO-STAKEHOLDERS' INVOLVEMENT  
4.1.  GSO is focusing on stakeholders' engagement 
(https://www.gso.org.sa/en/standards/participation -in-standards -development/ ) in the standards 
and Technical Regulations developments process, to ensure their fruitful contribution at the right 
time. To that end , GSO prepared the necessary infrastructure by holistic revision of respective 
technical guides and reemphasizing such perception among main key players in the GCC  industries 
and the Economic Operators (EO) around the world.  
5  INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION PROGRAMS  
5.1.  At the regional and international, GSO has an observer membership in ISO, IEC, WTO (TBT, 
SPS), CODEX, Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries  (SMIIC ), Arabic Industrial 
Development and Mining Organization (AIDMO ), etc., and regularly attends the annual general 
meetings of ISO, IEC, CODEX, OMIL, and many other regional standardization organizations such as 
the European Committee for Standardization's European Committee for Electrotechnical 
Standardization (CEN -CENELEC) , AIDMO, African Organization for Standardization (ARSO ). 
Recently, on 23 December 2020, the International Telecommunication Union ( ITU) approved the full 
membership of GSO in ITU -T (ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Sector) . 
5.2.  GSO continu es its close international cooperation with partners around the world through 
62 MoUs and Cooperation agreements ( https://www.gso.org.sa/en/about -gso/gsos -mous/ ) with 
50 national , regional, and standardization organizations.  
 
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