G/TBT/GEN/340  
 
13 February  2023 
(23-1014) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
ISO UPDATE TO THE TBT COMMITTEE  
INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR STANDARDIZATION  
(ISO)  
This document contains information provided by ISO at the TBT Committee meeting of 
16-18 November 2022 under Agenda Item 4 (Update by Observers).1 
 
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1.1.  ISO would  like to thank the WTO TBT for the opportunity to provide an update on ISO activities.  
1.2.  ISO had a very successful ISO Annual Meeting 2022 which took place in Abu Dhabi on 
19-23 September and was hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT), 
ISO's member for the UAE.  
1.3.  The new and open format of this year 's event attracted record -breaking participation  and was 
a pivotal moment fo r the ISO community to make progress and drive meaningful change for the 
future. Discover the event session  replays, highlights  and read the wrap-up of the week . 
1.4.  The 44th ISO General Assembly took place during the ISO Annual Meeting on 22 September, it 
elected the  next ISO President, Dr . Sung Hwan Cho (Korea, Republic of), for 2024 -2025 who will 
serve as President -elect in 2023 . 
1.5.  ISO's Climate  Commitment was reinforced by the General Assembly through a resolution that 
called for members to engage with their national delegations to COP27 to highlight the important 
role played by International Standards and actively promote the Net Zero Guideline s due to be 
published next month.  
1.6.  On 14 October, the ISO community celebrated World Standards Day  which was a campaign  on 
standards supporting the #SDGs  with the tagline "Shared vision for a better world ". 
1.7.  The implementation  of the ISO Strategy 2030  (approved at beginning of 2021) is well 
progressing. The rolling implementation plan and the measurement framework are constantly 
adapted to  better support the achievement of its goals and priorities to help us reach our vision and 
mission. A revision of the measurement framework is currently ongoing, and the review of the 
strategic priorities is expected in 2023.  
1.8.  Overall information  on ISO c apacity building can be found at Home (iso.org) , including ISO 's 
strategic framework for capacity building, and the ISO Action Plan for developing countries 
2021 to 2025. The ISO Digital Learning Platfo rm can also be accessed through this link. It is a 
knowledge hub that offers exciting opportunities for ISO members and their national stakeholders 
to benefit from a variety of standardization and business skills courses in a fully digital learning 
environ ment.  
1.9.  ISO's committee  for developing country matters ( DEVCO ) met within the framework of the 
ISO annual meeting on 19 September 2022. During this meeting the Standards4Sustainability 
 
1 In original language only.  G/TBT/GEN/340  
 
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  programme was launched, to be implemented under the ISO Action Plan for d eveloping countries 
2021 to 2025. Guided by the needs expressed by ISO members from developing countries, we will 
roll out comprehensive support and create pools of national experts by conducting training of trainer 
programmes on specific ISO standards, li nked to People, Planet, and Prosperity. Through this 
national expertise created, awareness raising for governments and businesses will take place 
through our members, and case studies will be developed.   
1.10.   The 56th DEVCO  meeting was chaired by Ms. Julia Bon ner Douett of the Bureau of Standards 
Jamaica (BSJ). Members approved a methodology designed to enable developing countries to 
identify standardization areas of primary interest and develop proposals for new fields of technical 
work. Given the importance o f the ISO project on machine -readable standards (ISO SMART), a new 
Working Group was established at the DEVCO level to strengthen developing country involvement. 
Lastly, DEVCO members participated in a roundtable on the subject of marketplace confidence th at 
took place with the conformity assessment (CASCO) and consumer (COPOLCO) Policy Development 
Committee (PDC) Chairpersons.  
1.11.   LDC program:  Given the needs identified by members from LDCs  in the annual ISO capacity 
building needs assessment conducted in December 2021, the LDC Programme, initiated as a pilot in 
2019, will continue with a more targeted, tailored approach, but will allow more NSBs to take 
advantage of the programme offerings.  The programme has been developed taking into 
consideration the feedback from the pilot programme members.  Launched in 2022, and selected 
through a competitive application process, there are 10 ISO members from Africa and Asia 
participating in the LDC Prog ramme. Under this new LDC Programme, the members will be able to 
select and create a programme that is tailored to the thematic areas most important and strategic 
to their organization and for the benefit of their public and private sector stakeholders. Th is tailor -
made programme will help to strengthen their institutional capacity to better benefit from 
international standards to address their economic and social development needs through the high -
quality tailored support while improving their standardizat ion needs and contribution to the SDGs.   
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