G/TBT/GEN/346  
 
31 March  2023 
(23-2280) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
UNECE UPDATE TO THE TBT COMMITTEE  
INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE  
(UNECE)  
This document contains information provided by  UNECE  at the TBT Committee meeting of 
8-10 March  2023 under Agenda Item 5 (Observers).  1 
 
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The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) would like to congratulate the 
WTO on a productive TBT Committee meeting. As we have underlined in the past, there are a number 
of topics under  development within the UNECE that could be of potential interest to the membership 
of your committee that we would like to briefly present.  
The UNECE Commission shall have a two -year theme of "digital, green transformations for 
sustainable development ". All relevant subsidiary bodies of UNECE  and the secretariat are invited to 
consider how they may contribute to this cross -cutting theme within respective mandates.  
In support of this theme, within the Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation and 
Standardization Policies (WP.6), work is ongoing o n artificial intelligence and especially the market 
surveillance of products with artificial intelligence and their conformity throughout their lifecycle . 
Guidance on this is expected to  be released by the end of the year.  
WP.6 continues to progress its other main topics of : 
• market surveillance (planning to update its Recommendation M on the contributions of 
market s urveillance to the combat against counterfeit products ) and UNECE just updated 
our multilingual glossary of market surveillance terms  (in English, French, Russian and 
Spanish)  
• metrology (with a revision of its Recommendation K on metrology  in close cooperation 
with OIML, BIPM and ILAC)  
• gender -responsive standards (with the publication of a guidance on developing gender -
responsive standards  available in English, French, Spanish, Russian and soon also in 
Chinese and Arabic)  
• education on standardization and quality infrastructure (having just published an 
e-learning training  with modules on market surveillance, conformity assessment, risk 
management and gender -responsive standards)  
The UNECE secretariat continues making  progress on the previous UNECE Commission theme 
of "circular economy transition and s ustainable use of natural resources. " Within the Trade 
Subprogramme, we have launched a multi -stakeholder knowledge -sharing network that helps to 
"step-up" the circular transition, fill gaps and create synergies among the many practical and 
 
1 In original language only.  G/TBT/GEN/346  
 
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  value -creating initiatives in support of the circular economy. This is through our "Circular Step " 
project  and we invite all those interested to join the net work.  
Finally, we would like to announce the dates of our Steering Committee on Trade Capacity and 
Standards  which will take place on 26 and 27 June – this is the Monday and Tuesday following the 
next TBT Committee meeting (21 to 23 June). We would like to invite the members of the TBT to 
join us for this meeting. Among other points, we will be discussing:  
• demand -driven studies on regulatory and procedural barriers to trade  
• these studies include chapters on  standardization policies and regulatory practices.  
• Studies have been done on Albania  (in 2016), Armenia  (in 2019), Belarus  (in 2012), 
Georgia  (in 2018), Kazakhstan  (in 2014), Kyrgyzstan  (in 2015), the Republic of 
Moldova  (in 2017), Serbia (in 2021), and Tajikistan  (in 2014)  
• We have launched an updated study on Kyrgyzstan with particular focus on agriculture 
sector and assisting to expand export opportunities.  
• We will also have in -depth discussion on the circular economy dimension in the 
analytical work on regulatory barriers.  
If you would like any further information on any of these topics, please don 't hesitate to contact 
us at: regulatory.cooperation@un.org . 
 
 
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