G/SPS/GEN/1912  
 
1 June 2021 
(21-4536) 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 29 May 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)  is a non -profit Regional Standardization Organization 
(RSO), established by the resolution of the GCC Supreme Council  (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)  to achieve the objectives set forth in its Charter and in the GCC Economic Agreement by 
unifying the various standardization acti vities 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 production 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 INFRASTRUCTURE FRAMEWORK (GQI)  
2.1.  GSO has issued more than 23 ,524 Unified Gulf Standards and Technical Regulations  so far 
through 44  Technical Committees and Sub-Technical Committees  representing all GSO member 
states and covering most of GCC sectors . 
2.2.  GSO developed the GCC Conformity Assessment Scheme  in pursuance of reducing the technical 
barriers of trade and facilitat ing 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 have been 
implemented with the Gulf Conformity Marking , namely, the GSO Tech nical 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, cos metics, energy consumption 
efficiency, hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment, electromagnetic 
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 articles intended 
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; G/SPS/GEN/1912  
 
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  − More than 440 ,000 Conformity Certificates for Vehicle, tiers, Motorcycle have been issued 
through the Electronic Conformity Certificate Scheme (ECCS) . 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. 35,608 products had the G -Mark through m ore than 
37,419 Conformity Certificates issued through the GCC Conformity Tracking System . 
Additionally, 971  free Proficiency Testing Programs (PTs) for 653 GCC laboratories have been 
organized as one of the main activities of the Gulf Association for Laboratories (GCCLAB) , 
which is an open network for laboratories and supporting companies op erating 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 March 2013).  
2.3.  GSO established the GCC Acc reditation Center (GAC)  which obtained the international 
recognition in June 2016. Currently, GAC is an independent organization which provides accreditation 
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 addition to Yemen.  
2.4.  GSO has created and hosted the GULFMET  as a Regional Metrology Organization (RMO), 
bringing together National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) of the Kingdom of Bahrain, the State of 
Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,  and the United Arab Emirates  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 procedures of the 
JCRB and within the meaning of the CIPM MRA on its meeting No. 104 (Paris, 15 -16 October 2015).  
In its 43rd meeting, 15 -17 March 2021, the JCRB in BIPM agrees that GULFMET fulfils  all 
requirements described in CIPM MRA ‐P‐12 Appendix B, section B1, and GULFMET becomes a full 
member of the JCRB, with a voice a nd the right to vote.  
2.5.  GSO invests in strengthening the knowledge, skills, and know -how of its members through 
extensive training and technical assistance programmes in the field of standardization and its related 
activities. GSO established the GCC Standardization Training Center  to meet the needs and 
requirements of the GSO members and aim at helping members participate effectively in the 
development of international st andardization, and towards increasing the competence of 
standardization experts in Good Standardization Practices (GSP). An annual Training Plan is designed 
to meet the needs and requirements of the NSBs through highly experienced and qualified experts 
in cooperation with NSB s, regional, and international standardization organizations. Till now, 
GSO has trained and qualified more than 14 ,000 participants through 500 training courses.  
3  INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) 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 Ide ntity 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 
Kingdom of Bahrain  and Oman . On the other hand, GSO signed the copyright license agreements 
with the European Committee for Standardization's European Committee for Electrotechnical 
Standardization ( CEN-CENELEC)  by which both side s have full access to metadate of each other. 
Moreover, GSO  and ASTM International signed the IT integration agreement for the same purpose.  
3.3.  Such integrations enable GSO to develop a unified platform to search different standard 
catalogues and facilitate t he adoption process for standards at the GCC level.  
3.4.  In addition to that, GSO has developed many platforms and e -services  and keep working on 
their contentious development and improv ements to meet the needs of the member states.  G/SPS/GEN/1912  
 
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  4  GSO-STAKEHOLDERS' INVOLVEMENT  
4.1.  GSO is focusing on stakeholders' engagement  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  
5.1.  At the regional and international, GSO has an observer membership in ISO, IEC, WTO (TBT, 
SPS), C odex, 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, C odex, OMIL, and many other regional standardization organizations such as 
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 its partners around the world through 
62 MoUs and cooperation agreements  with 50  national , regional, and standardization organizations.  
5.3.  GSO participated in the regular meeting of the SPS Committee, held virtually on 25 -26 March 
2021, as well as at the informal session on 24 March 2021 and the Thematic Session on African 
Swine Fever on 23 March 2021.  
5.4.  On the other hand, GSO participated in the monthly regional webinar organized by ARSO : 
"Trading in Agriculture and Food Products – Interfacing the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) & 
Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures for Market Access ", 19 May 2021.  
 
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