G/TBT/W/461  
 
23 February 2018  
(18-1176) Page: 1/4 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
 OPERATION OF THE COM MITTEE – GOOD REGULATORY PRAC TICES –  
CONFORMITY ASSESSMEN T PROCEDURES - TRANSPARENCY   
EIGHTH TRIENNIAL REV IEW 
Submission from Brazil  
The following communication, dated 23 February 2018 , is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of Brazil . 
 
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On the occasion of the Eighth Triennial Review of the operation and implementation of the 
Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), under its Article 15.41, Brazil presents to the 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade the following matters for its consideration, 
recommendation and possible adoption.  
 
1  OPERATION OF THE COM MITTEE  
1.1  Thematic Sessions  
1.1.  Brazil believes that an early decision on the issues to be discussed e very year at the thematic 
sessions will encourage a larger number of countries to participate more actively in the debate and 
provide adequate time for any member, especially developing and least developed countries, to 
gather resources to send their exper ts to the meetings.   
1.1.1   Proposal  
1.2.  Brazil proposes that no later than the last annual meeting, usually in November, the TBT 
Committee decide which issues will be discussed at the thematic sessions that will take place 
during the following year. Currently many i ssues which will be submitted formally at the thematic 
sessions are defined during the first semester and briefly discussed some weeks before the formal 
session, limiting the possibility of developing countries to properly analyze  the matter and send 
exper ts to the meetings.  
                                                
1 Article 15.4 - Not later than the end of the third year from the date of entry into force of the WTO 
Agreement and at the end of each three -year period thereafter, the Committee shall review the operation and 
implementation of this Agreement, including the provisions relating to transparency, with a view to 
recommending an adjustment of the rights and obl igations of this Agreement where necessary to ensure 
mutual economic advantage and balance of rights and obligations, without prejudice to the provisions of Article 
12. Having regard, inter alia,  to the experience gained in the implementation of the Agreem ent, the Committee 
shall, where appropriate, submit proposals for amendments to the text of this Agreement to the Council for 
Trade in Goods.  G/TBT/W/461  
 
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  2  GOOD REGULATORY PRAC TICES  
2.1  Thematic Session on Good Regulatory Practice  
2.1.  Brazil is currently developing several initiatives to strengthen its regulatory governance at the 
federal level2 and understands that the adoption of Good Regulatory  Practices (GPRs) is directly 
linked to the appropriate implementation of the TBT Agreement. In this context, recommendations 
regarding transparency, public consultation, regulatory impact analysis and other GRP tools are 
key to ensure that WTO Members hav e access to each other 's regulatory processes and contribute 
to the fulfillment of TBT commitments.  
2.2.  GRPs were already the subject of seven WTO TBT Committee decisions: G/TBT/5 in 1997; 
G/TBT/9 in 2000; G/TBT/13 in 2003; G/TBT/19 in 2006; G/TBT/26 in 2009; G/TBT/32 in 2012; 
and G/TBT/37 in 2015, and the TBT Committee also promoted seven events on GRPs - such as 
workshops and thematic session -, which demonstrates lasting interest in this issue. Considering 
that GRPs are in constant evolution and that an orga nized exchange of experiences would benefit 
the Membership, Brazil would like to present the following specific suggestion.  
2.1.1   Proposal  
2.3.  Brazil proposes that the first thematic session of the TBT Committee, every year, should be 
devoted to GRPs. Discussions could encompass the following subjects: transparency, publication of 
information and regulations, public consultation, regulatory impact assessment, regulatory agenda 
and ex -post evaluation. In line with the above proposal of an early decision on the issue s to be 
discussed every year at the thematic sessions, the predetermination of this schedule would allow 
for a more robust participation from developing and least developed countries.  
2.2  Regulatory Impact Assessment  
2.4.  Good Regulatory Practices (GRP) prescribe R egulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) adoption in 
a systematic framework to ensure that regulations, as well as non -regulatory measures, are 
effective3 and efficient. An effective regulation results in the elimination of the problem posed and 
it is efficient w hen the regulatory costs related are the lowest possible to the regulator and to 
regulated sectors in a given circumstance.  
2.5.  RIA methodologies shall be applied before regulation adoption (ex ante), to indicate the best 
alternative, regulatory or non -regula tory, to solve the problem at hand, as well after its adoption 
(ex post), pointing out if a regulation needs to be modified, or has already fulfilled its objective 
and therefore could be withdrawn. Other reasons, such as technological advances, that may ma ke 
a regulation obsolete, shall be also considered. Thus, besides all benefits RIA brings to the 
effectiveness and efficiency of a given regulation, it also promotes the reduction of unnecessary 
regulatory burden.  
2.6.  Nevertheless, despite RIA relevance, the e ffort to develop such assessment studies is a 
challenge to Members, especially developing and least developed countries. Such studies demand 
an amount of data availability and structured databases very often non -existent in those countries. 
While these cha llenges are not overcome, it would be very useful to promote information sharing 
among members on this matter.  
2.7.  Information sharing on RIA represents an advance in transparency. Beyond the description of 
contents provided in TBT Committee notifications, a f ull report on the assessment of impacts a 
given regulation may cause, containing its positive and negative effects on markets, the risks to 
consumers and the regulatory alternative adopted inter alia, enables Members to understand the 
                                                
2 Presidential Decree 9.203/2017 ( http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2015 -
2018/2017/decreto/D9203.htm ),  Brazil 1st Regulatory Agenda on Foreign Trade 
(http://www.camex.gov.br/noticias -da-camex/1925 -agenda -regulatoria -de-comercio -exterior ) 
3 The 2012  Recommendation  of the Council  on Regulatory  Policy  and Governance  recognises that an 
effective regulatory policy includes “a consistent policy covering the role of functions of regulatory agencies in 
order to provide greater confidence that regulatory decisions are made on an objective, impartial and 
consistent basis, without conflict of interest, bias or improper influence.  
 G/TBT/W/461  
 
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  rationale developed b y the other Member in the decision making process. A full report on RIA also 
enables consistent reflections on possible comments to be presented.  
2.8.  It is worth highlighting that such information sharing can be understood as an effective and 
highly efficient technical assistance action, not just because the costs involved are very low, but 
most importantly, it may provide relevant data to Members that can be  adapted to their own 
reality, promoting better regulatory decision making.  
2.2.1   Proposal  
2.9.  Members who have al ready adopted RIA as part of their regulation process should be 
encouraged to provide a link to the full impact assessment study (ex ante RIA), in the pertinent 
notification to the TBT Committee, as well as to notify the subsequent assessments (ex post) 
related on a regular basis.  
3  TRANSPARENCY  
3.1  INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (IMS)  
3.1.  The Information Management System (IMS) for searching Specific Trade Concerns (STCs) 
raised by Members is a fundamental tool for the work developed by the TBT Committee. The 
Search tool also enables Members to access historic data on past STCs and current issues been 
raised by other Members.  
3.2.  However, Brazil has noticed that the TBT search tool lacks valuable information that is 
included in the corresponding SPS search tool, especial ly with respect to the status of the STCs 
reported to the Committee. In this context, Brazil believes that the TBT Committee could use some 
of the SPS experience and improve its operation and database as follows.  
3.3.  Brazil suggests that columns regarding the  status of the STC (i.e. whether it is resolved, 
partially resolved, or not reported, and date of resolution) be added to the reports within the TBT 
search tool, together with other columns for informative purposes (i.e. Members supporting the 
concern, and  subject keywords) that are within the SPS system and are useful for search 
purposes. Images of the current columns under TBT and SPS STCs search tool are provided below.  
 
G/TBT/W/461  
 
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3.4.  By adding, in particular, the report on the status of the STC and the date of res olution, Brazil 
believes that the Committee will confer more transparency and accountability to its work and will 
encourage Members to engage in a deeper exchange of information about the measures in 
question, thus contributing to increase the rate of reso lution of TBT STCs. Brazil believes this 
operational change, while not affecting any rules of procedure of the TBT Committee, could have 
an important impact4.  
3.1.1   Proposal  
3.5.  Brazil proposes to add four columns to the TBT STCs search tool, focusing on the report  to 
WTO Members about the status of STCs raised in the Committee. There are four columns in the 
SPS search engine that should be included under the corresponding TBT system: a) Member(s) 
supporting the concern; b) Subject keywords; c) Status ( "resolved/par tially resolved/not 
reported "); d) Date reported as resolved.  
 
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4 G/TBT/1