G/TBT/GEN/183  
 
1 October 2015  
(15-5091)  Page: 1/2  
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
 WORLDWIDE HARMONIZED REGULATIONS – OVERCOMING TECHNICAL BARRIERS  
TO TRADE IN A SPECIFIC SECT OR: AUTOMOTIVE VEHICLES  
STATEMENT BY THE UNECE 
This document contains information provided by the UNECE at the TBT Committee meeting of  
17-18 June 2015 under Agenda Item 5 (Update by Observers). 
 
_______________ 
 1.  UNECE would like to recall that it's Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation and Standardization Policies develops and shares best practice in the area of technical regulations, 
standardization policies, and policies related to quality infrastructure as well as conformity 
assessment and market surveillance. It encourag es and supports regulatory cooperation among 
members in specific sectors, such as the equipment used in installations with a high risk of 
explosion.  
2.  Last year, the Working Party held a Confer ence on "Safer products and workplaces, safer 
communities" during its annual session. The proceed ings of the Conference have been published 
as part of the session report.  
3.  The next session of the Working Party is coming up from 2 to 3 December back-to back with 
the World Standards Cooperation (WSC) workshop on Conformity Assessment and will be held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. This year the discussion will focus on conformity assessment 
aiming at coordinating the countries' conformity assessment procedures such as to avoid multiple 
certifications.  
4.  Also, a joint ITU-IEC-UNECE event on "Standards and regulations" will be held partly in Palais 
des Nations on 2-3 November just before the next WTO TBT November meeting. The event is a 
unique opportunity to connect national and international policymakers with standards developers, in order to share experience and best practice s. The preliminary information on the event is 
available in the save the date note. 
5.  Another area of activity that is relevant to members of this Committee are the UNECE studies 
on regulatory and procedural barriers to trade which identify and recommend ways of reducing and or eliminating technical and procedural barriers to regional and international trade. Currently, 
two studies based on this methodology – on Belarus and on Kazakhstan which are not WTO 
members have been completed. Another study on a recently accessed country, Tajikistan was 
published in the second half of 2014.  
6.  As mentioned at the March session of the Committee on TBT the working party is reviewing its 
recommendation on the "International Model for Technical Harmonization. The latest draft revision of its text has been forwarded to the WTO Secretariat and working party invites comments to this 
draft latest by September 1. 
7.  As stated in the March 2015 Committee of TBT,  UNECE would like to recall that its World Forum 
for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) provides a regulatory framework for the market 
introduction of harmonized innovative vehicle tech nologies, while reducing technical barriers trade. 
TBTs in this sector can in fact be eliminated or significantly reduced for participating parties 
because once a vehicle or its parts are certified in accordance with adopted UN Global Technical Regulations or UN Regulations it can be delivered  and sold worldwide among Contracting Parties.  G/TBT/GEN/183 
 
- 2 - 
 
  8.  These regulations are developed at WP.29 under two instruments called the 1998 and 1958 
Agreements.  
9.  Under the 1998 Agreement harmonized technical prescriptions for vehicles are developed and 
established by consensus voting as Global Technical Regulations (GTRs). These GTRs then serve as 
the basis for setting harmonized national regulations, which attain high levels of vehicle safety, 
theft prevention, environmental pr otection and energy efficiency. The Agreement can also provide 
economic benefits by reducing regulatory compliance costs that can result from the need to satisfy 
differing regulatory requirements between the Contracting Parties. The Contracting Parties are 
currently exploring way to further improve the pace of adoption of new GTRs.  
10.  Under the 1958 Agreement, the Contracting Parties facilitate cross-border trade by developing 
UN Regulations that include the reciprocal acceptance of approvals of vehicle systems, parts and 
equipment. To address the issue of the reciprocal recognition of the entire vehicle, WP.29 launched 
the International Whole Vehicle Type Appr oval (IWVTA) project in March 2010.  
 
 
__________