G/TBT/W/415  
 
1 June 2015  
(15-2883)  Page: 1/2  
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
  (DRAFT) BEST PRACTICES FOR THE NOTIFICATION OF  
REGIONAL TECHNICAL REGULATIONS 
SEVENTH TRIENNIAL REVIEW 
Submission from the United States 
The following submission, dated 1 June 2015, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of the United States. 
 
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1  INTRODUCTION 
1.1.  On the occasion of the Seventh Trienni al Review of the World Trade Organization's 
Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement), the United States would like to propose that the TBT Committee examine the notification of regional technical regulations and 
conformity assessment procedures.  
1.2.  Noting that Articles 2 and 5 of the TBT Agreement require  Members to notify proposed 
technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures at the central and sub central levels 
that do not use international standards and have a significant impact on trade.  
1.3.  Noting that the TBT Committee has a biennial Meeting on Procedures for Information 
Exchange, which includes technical discussion on good practices in notification, electronic databases, operation of enquiry points, and transparency in standards-setting. 
1.4.  Recognizing that the TBT Committee recommended a coherent use of notification formats to 
provide further instruction to Members on good practices for notification in June 2014.
1  
1.5.  Understanding that some WTO Members ar e engaging in the development of regional 
technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures, including in the Common Market of 
South America (MERCOSUR), Central American Integration System, the Andean Community (CAN), Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) through the Gulf Standardization Organization (GSO), 
Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), East African Community (EAC), and Association of South East 
Asian Nations (ASEAN), and that possibly Members in other regions are in the process of considering the practice of developing regional  technical regulations and conformity assessment 
procedures. 
2  EXAMPLES OF GOOD PRACTICES 
2.1.  While there is no specific requirement for Members to notify proposed regional technical 
regulations many Members do notify them, but no tifications are made in a number of ways using 
different practices. The United States notes the Central American Members who participate in the 
Central American Integration System tend to noti fy the same proposed regulation within a few 
days of each other and all of the notifications carry the same title, comment and implementation 
period, which makes the regional technical regulation easy to track. The Andean Community also 
recently notified two proposed regional technical regulations via Peru, but each notification had 
                                               
1 G/TBT/35  G/TBT/W/415 
 
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  four notification numbers, one for each of the Members notifying.2 This practice provided an easy 
way to understand a proposed regional technical regulation was being implemented and provided 
consistent comment times and implementation periods. There may be other good practices that could be identified and encouraged. 
3  PROPOSAL 
3.1.  Therefore, we propose that good practi ces for notifying proposed regional technical 
regulations and conformity assessment procedures be discussed as a part of the Seventh Triennial 
Review. The United States proposes the TBT Committee take up discussion of notifications of 
regional technical regulations and identify best practices for the benefit of consistency in practice among Members. 
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2 G/TBT/N/BOL/1, G/TBT/N/COL/203, G/TBT/N/EC U/250, G/TBT/N/PER/57; and G/TBT/N/BOL/2, 
G/TBT/N/COL/204, G/TBT/N/ECU/251, G/TBT/N/PER/58.