G/TBT/GEN/221  
 
30 May 2017  
(17-2886) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade    
 
 STATEMENTS DELIVERED  BY THE WTO SECRETARI AT AT  
THE TBT COMMITTEE ME ETINGS OF 28 -30 MARCH 2017  
This document contains the statements made by the WTO Secretariat  at the Thematic Session on 
Conformity Assessment Procedures on 28 March 2017 and at the regula r meeting on 29 -30 March 
2017.  
 
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1  CONFORMITY ASSESSMEN T: SECRETARIAT DOCUM ENT JOB/TBT/224  
1.1.  This paper is a revision and update of a previous background document on Conformity 
Assessment Procedures (JOB/TBT/69).  It is intended to provide a b asis for further discussion in 
the Committee in the area of Conformity Assessment Procedures  – particularly in light of the 
upcoming triennial review and the fact that there are several pending recommendations before the 
Committee in th is area. The paper s ummarizes the work that has been done . The work of the 
Committee has focused on three areas: approaches to the conformity assessment; the use of 
relevant international guides or recommendations; and, facilitating the recognition of conformity 
assessment re sults. The paper puts particular emphasis on the first area: the factors that are 
important to consider when deciding on what c onformity assessment procedures  to use in different 
situations (e.g., risk, product sector).  
2  EPING : UPDATE  
2.1.  During the November 20 16 TBT Committee meeting , UNDESA, WTO and ITC launched ePing  
– the SPS&TBT notification alert system. ePing is a publically accessible online platform that helps 
private sector stakeholders and government officials tra ck relevant new SPS and TBT notifications. 
The system also provides several tools to follow up on notifications , allowing  potential trade issues 
to be addressed at an early stage. Four months after the launch, more than 1,900 subscribers 
have registered on  ePing , covering 142 countries. At the beginning of 2017, an ePing survey was 
set up to gather feedback from users ; considering that the system was launched only recently, the 
results of the survey were largely positive , although around three quarters of t he respondents 
indicated that training (either online or face -to-face) would help them to make better use of ePing .  
2.2.  As soon as a pilot version was available, the WTO Secretariat , as well as ITC and UNDESA,  
started to receive requests for training and info rmation activities on the system. In 2016 , more 
than ten ePing training and information events  were organized , and ePing -related activities 
continue to make up a substantial part of the TBT Secretariat's t echnical assistance  schedule . All 
three organizatio ns are looking into options to increase the training and information sessions to 
accommodate requests. Besides training, future activities will focus on maintenance, improving 
and elaborating the ePing as well as promoting the system, especially in develop ing and least 
developed countries.  
3  ENQUIRY POINT GUIDE:  PROGRESS REPORT   
3.1.  At the Seventh Triennial Review, Members requested that "the Secretariat, based on 
experiences shared by Members and for the purposes of training and capacity building, to prepare 
a guide on best practices for enquiry points …" .1 At the informal TBT Committee meeting in 
September 2016, Members were informed about the availability of an online survey for the enquiry 
                                                
1 G/TBT/37, para . 5.12(a)(ii) . G/TBT/GEN/221  
 
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  points , to which 68 Members responded; the findings of this survey are  being used in the drafting 
of the guide.  The purpose of the guide will be to assist Members in implementing the TBT 
Agreement's transparency provisions with respect to enquiry points. It will do this primarily by 
providing an overview of the TBT Agreement 's main obligations, relevant decisions and 
recommendations taken by the Committee, and experiences gathered from Members. It will cover 
the establishment of enquiry points, their main functions , and highlight some of the key findings 
from the survey , such  as the importance of these  institutions in the implementation of Members' 
transparency commitments. The guide is scheduled to be  finaliz ed later in 2017.  
4  ANNUAL REVIEW : SECRETARIAT DOCUMENT  G/TBT/39 /REV.12 
4.1.  The 22nd Annual Review of the TBT Agreement is co ntained in document G/TBT/39 /Rev.1 , a 
factual report cover ing the activities of th e Committee in 2016.  The executive summary provides a 
good snapshot of significant work undertaken by the Committee , highlights  of which include : (i) 
launch of " ePing "; (ii) on transparency, the most notifications submitted in any one year in the 
Committee's history;  (iii) the discussion of  173 STCs; (iv) seven thematic sessions including two 
on regulatory cooperation between Members, wh ich focused on energy efficienc y and food 
labelling;  and (v) the Eighth Special Meeting on Proc edures for Information Exchange . The 
document a lso contains a range of charts presenting information on notifications and STCs drawn 
from information contained i n the TBT IMS  which has recently been relaunched with additional 
features of directly downloading such graphs .  
5  TECHNICAL COOPERATIO N ACTIVITIES : 2016 -2017 BIENNIUM  
5.1.  Similar to previous years, in 2016 the TBT TA activ ities requested and provided by the 
Secretariat continued to be very significant3, consistent with growing demand over the last few 
years. During 2016, the WTO Secretariat organized, or otherwise participated in, a total of 37 TBT 
TA activities in various formats , of which 15 were national, regional and Geneva -based workshops , 
organized specifically on the TBT Agreement. Three of these TBT -specific activities were of 
particular significance, namely: (i) a week-long "Follow -up to the Advanced Course on the T BT 
Agreement", organized jointly by TED and ITTC, for which 20 participants from the 2015 TBT 
advanced course returned to Geneva to share experiences and to report on progress made in the 
implementation of their action plans; (ii) a "Workshop on Standards,  Regulations and Health", the 
first of this kind ever organized, developed and organized by TED (jointly with ACD) ; and (iii) a  
three -day "Workshop on TBT Transparency and Transparency Enhancing Tools", organized in 
parallel with the November TBT Committee , which was attended by 29 participants from least -
developed and developing countries, all involved in the implementation of the TBT Agreement at 
national level.  More than half of the 2016 national, regional and Geneva -based TBT specific 
activities also co vered the SPS Agreement and were organized in cooperation with the Secretariat 
experts responsible for that area. Indeed, demand for joint TBT -SPS national workshops has 
significantly increased since 2015. Preliminary data for TBT TA activities in 2017 ind icates that 
delivery of national activities will likely again increase as compared to recent years, and that 
demand for TBT TA activitie s, in general, will remain significant . Several TA activities have also 
been held  on ePing . 
 
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2 The revision was circulated in G/TBT/39/Rev.1 on 18 May 2017 . 
3 G/TBT/GEN/212.