G/TBT/GEN/262  
 
13 May 2019 
(19-3272) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade    
 
STATEMENTS DELIVERED  BY THE WTO SECRETAR IAT AT  
THE TBT COMMITTEE ME ETING  OF 6-7 MARCH 2019  
This document contains the statements made by the WTO Secretariat  at the TBT Committee meeting  
of 6-7 March 2019 .  
 
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AGENDA ITEM 2D - FOLLOW -UP ON COMMITTEE DECISION S AND RECOMMENDATIONS 
(G/TBT/41 )  
1.1  Enquiry Points  verification  
1.1.  As delegations may recall, one of the recommendations from the 8th Triennial Review was for 
Members to validate and update as necessary the contact information for their enquiry points as 
contained in the TBT IMS. Members were encouraged to contact the Secretariat for this purpose by 
the March 2019 meeting of the Committ ee.  
1.2.  In an effort to facilitate this process, the Secretariat sent out an email message to all Enquiry 
Points on 21 January 2019, asking them to verify their Enquiry Point information.  
1.3.  So far, 76 Members have responded to this email. 26 Members have confi rmed that their 
Enquiry Point information is correct and 50 have provided  updates, including changes to institutional 
arrangements,  contact persons,  email addresses, etc. All these changes are already reflected in the 
TBT IMS.  
1.4.  The Secretariat is continuing  to work on this validation process and will report back during the 
June meeting of the TBT Committee. In the meantime, delegations are encouraged to contact the 
Secretariat with any updates to their Enquiry Point information.  
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AGENDA ITEM 4 - TECHNICAL COOPERATIO N ACTIVITIES – INFOR MATION FROM THE 
SECRETARIA T 
2.1  Transparency workshop  
2.1.  We would like to inform delegations that the Secretariat will be organizing a one -week TBT 
transparency workshop from 17 to 21 June, coinciding  with the TBT Committee meetings.  
2.2.  The WTO will be able to fund the participation of 30 officials from developing countries, LDCs 
and economies in transition , working specifically on transparency issues . Participants will attend 
parts of the TBT Committee meeting , including the transparency thematic session . They will also 
have an opportunity to exchange experiences and receive hands -on training on transparency tools 
such as ePing and the SPS NSS.  
2.3.  The invitation to present candidates for this workshop was circulat ed by the WTO's Institute 
for Training and Technical Cooperation on 5 March (i.e. 2 days ago) and the deadline to present G/TBT/GEN/262  
 
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  candidates, via the Permanent Missions, is 26 March. We would like to invite interested delegations 
to follow up to ensure that their candidates are presented by this deadline.  
2.2  Update on ePing  
2.4.  The Secretariat continues to include ePing in its capacity building activities, sometimes through 
general presentations and sometimes through more detailed hands -on sessions, depending on the 
benef iciaries and any specific requests. For example, since the last Committee meeting in November, 
national seminars held in Chile, Guatemala and the Philippines have included dedicated modules on 
ePing.  
2.5.  The number of subscribers continues to grow. During the Committee's November meeting, we 
had registered the 5000th subscriber. As of today, we have more than 6,100 registered  users.  
2.6.  There were some references  and queries related to ePing during Tuesday's thematic session 
on good regulatory practice. In accordance with the Eighth Triennial Review recommendations , the 
June transparency thematic session will be another occasion to discuss how ePing can facilitate the 
work of Enquiry Points, including in reaching out the private sector. Members interested in  sharing 
their ePing experience during the June event are invited to contact the Secretariat.  
2.7.  Lastly, since December, we have a short introductory film on ePing, which is available through 
the ePing  website : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqD5Gf2WKZk . 
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