G/TBT/GEN/167  
 
 
24 June 2014  
(14-3643)  Page: 1/5  
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
 THEMATIC SESSION ON TRANSPARENCY 
17 JUNE 2014 
Moderator's Report  
This Report was delivered by the Chairman1 of the WTO TBT Committee at the meeting of 
18-19 June 2014. 
 
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  1.  At the Sixth Triennial Review, the Committee agreed to hold a thematic session on 
transparency  in response to specific decisions and recommendations contained in triennial review 
reports.
2 This second thematic session on transparency  was held on 17 June 2014.3 The following 
topics were addressed: (i) functioning of enquiry points; (ii) transparency in standard-setting4; 
(iii) regional experiences; and, (iv) developments in online tools.5 The final programme is annexed 
to this summary report. The full presentations are available as Room Documents on WTO Documents Online (under "Documents for meetings").  
2.  The thematic session started with Ukraine  sharing its positive experience in cooperation with 
other governments and NGOs. Ukraine described the challenges its Enquiry Point (EP) faced, as well as the efforts it made, to engage the private sector to make use of its TBT information gathering and dissemination capabilities. A turnin g point in overcoming such challenges was the 
launching of a project (still on-going) on increasi ng efficiency in the cooperation between the EP 
and the private sector. This project - undertaken as part of the institutional cooperation between Ukraine's Ministry of Trade and the Swedish Nation al Board of Trade (NBT) - is being conducted by 
the EP in cooperation with the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the Institute 
for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (RI), a Ukrainian NGO. Ukraine stressed the importance of learning from NBT's many years of  experience with TBT implementation and dialog 
with the private sector. Ukraine also highlighted RI's important contribution by facilitating both the 
communication between EP and domestic private sector (including Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations) as well as the dissemination of information in all regions of the country. For instance, RI helped make EP messages more "bus iness-oriented" and co-authored with EP various 
periodical and ad hoc free-of-charge publications providing information on new TBT/SPS 
notifications, TBT/SPS proposed measures, and relevant topics in TBT/SPS Committee meetings. These publications already had a significant growing number of subscribers from the Ukrainian 
industry and NGOs communities. Ukraine concluded by saying that these joint efforts between the 
EP, the NBT and RI were already producing positive results, such as fostering a better informed, more interested and more active business sector. Th is, in turn, was resulting in more enquiries and 
                                               
1 Mr. Filipe Ramalheira (Portugal). This Report is  provided on the Chairman's own responsibility. 
2 The latest decisions and recommendations on transparency are contained in Section 4 of 
G/TBT/1/Rev.11. 
3 On 18 June 2013, as foreshadowed in the Sixth Triennial Review (G/TBT/32, paragraph 26(b)), the 
first thematic session on transparency was organized as the "Seventh Special Meeting on Procedures for Information Exchange". The Chairman Report on this special meeting is contained in G/TBT/GEN/151. 
4 "Transparency in standard-setting" is the only of th ese transparency topics that was part of a previous 
thematic session (Thematic Session on Standards, he ld on 5 March 2013), the summary report of which is 
contained in G/TBT/GEN/144, para. 1.7. 
5 On this same day, the WTO Secretariat also or ganized a lunch-time trai ning session on the TBT 
Notification Submission  System (TBT NSS). G/TBT/GEN/167 
 
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  comments to the EP from stakeholders on TBT issues, including on notifications and specific trade 
concerns (STCs).  
3.  We next heard from the representative of Kenya  about its TBT National Consultative 
Committee (the "National Committee"), which reviewed and coordinated views about all issues 
pertaining to TBT in the country. Kenya explained that the National Committee met three times a 
year before each WTO TBT Committee meeting in Geneva and was chaired by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade with a Secretariat housed in the Kenya Bureau of Standards. The 
representative of Kenya said that the National Committee had a very wide membership, being 
composed of representatives both from the government (various ministries, state departments, regulatory authorities and attorney general) as well as the private sector (various consumer associations, business associations, NGOs and universities), and even an UN body, UNIDO. Kenya 
then gave an overview of the many areas of responsibility covered by the National Committee, 
which included: reviewing developments in, and notifications containing, domestic and foreign TBT measures that could constitute barriers to trade; coordinating common positions on 
notifications by other Members as well responses to enquires on Kenya's measures; reviewing 
developments in the TBT Committee and coordinating common positions regarding any discussions in the WTO involving TBT issues (including inputs for the Triennial Reviews); and reviewing 
technical assistance needs. Kenya concluded by describing the main challenges the 
National Committee was facing, which included: limited feedback from the business community on foreign notifications; inadequate policies and legislation to guide regulatory authorities in the country concerning notification procedures (although a draft legislation was being developed to 
address this problem); and lack of synergy between various regulatory authorities in the country, 
in particular the autonomous ones.  
4.  The United States  made two presentations on the issue of engaging with the private sector. 
In the first presentation, the representative of th e United States explained the mechanisms it used 
to monitor and provide comments on TBT notifications. The US Enquiry Point operated a customized email alert service (NotifyUS) which allowed US individuals, industries and 
organizations to subscribe to receive messages when new notifications were issued that 
corresponded to regions or products of their interest. The system had nearly 3,000 subscribers, and enabled them to obtain full text notifications, learn about deadlines for comments and to submit comments on notifications. A large portion of users of this service were trade and industry 
associations, law firms, and testing and calibration organizations. The US Enquiry Point's 
responsibilities included: providing guidance to industry on the preparation of comments; sending US comments to other Members; and accepting and circulating other Members' comments on US 
notifications to US government regulators and trade and export agencies. Specifically regarding 
the private sector, the US said that the industry frequently alerted the US government to new or changing technical regulations worldwide that were not notified, which triggered follow-up requests 
for information by the Enquiry Point. Moreover, industry helped determine what questions to ask of 
other Members regarding notifications.  
5.  In the second presentation, the representative of the United States  explained how the US 
engages the private sector through the work of  Advisory Committees. The US first gave an 
overview on the legal framework defining the ro le of, and harmonizing the approaches taken by, 
the roughly 1,000 Advisory Committees. The US emphasised that Advisory Committees were required to take a whole-of-government, multi-st akeholder approach, thus allowing all interested 
parties, including foreign stakeholders, to attend its meetings, appear before the committee and 
file statements. All documents produced by Advisory Committees (such as minutes and reports) were available to the public. The rationale behind this transparent and inclusive approach (not 
followed only in cases involving national security) was the objective to gather as much information 
and inputs as possible, including in particular from  private stakeholders, so as to produce the best 
policy and regulatory outcome possible. The US considered that by allowing a meaningful 
engagement with the private sector this approach granted government authorities, society, and 
the global community key benefits such as: amassing knowledge and expertise thus driving down 
the information costs of developing regulations; implementing evidence-based and effective regulations; and "rooting out" unnecessary obstacles to trade before they become a topic of 
international concern.  
6.  Regarding the topic of transparency in  standard-setting, the representative of Egypt  gave an 
overview of the functioning, challenges and im provements of the Egyptian Organization for 
Standardization (EOS), which was responsible for standardization activities, products certification G/TBT/GEN/167 
 
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  for granting quality and Halal Mark, besides indust rial calibration and products testing activities. 
EOS was both the TBT National Notification Author ity and the TBT Enquiry Point, and also headed 
its inter-governmental, multi-stakeholder TBT National Sub-Committee. Egypt then explained the eight stages involved in the development of national standards, ranging from the collection of 
requests and feedback from stakeholders about the need for a new standard until its final 
publication and dissemination. Egypt explained that when EOS Board of Directors considered that a 
given standard addressing a health, safety or environmental concern could provide a solution for 
the problem, the Board could recommend the Minist ry of Trade and Industry to enact and publish 
a Ministerial Decree making such standards mandatory (thus turning it into a technical regulation). Egypt also presented the following two examples of how transparency was important to improve 
the development of standards by taking into account concerns expressed by stakeholders: a 
proposed standard on chrome percentage in ce ment and a Ministerial Decree on the operating 
temperature limits in air conditioners. Finally, Egypt gave an overview on recent and future improvements in its standard-setting process. It indicated that an important recent improvement 
was the requirement to also publish amendments of  original standards. With respect to future 
improvements, it indicated its intention to: publish its Standards Development Plan on the EOS website; establish a National Quality Council; and use Regulatory Impact Assessment as a 
technical regulation best practice. 
7.  With respect to regional experiences, we heard two presentations on the role of regional 
organizations in enhancing the implementation of  the TBT Agreement's tr ansparency provisions: 
one form Saudi Arabia and another from Peru.  
8.  The representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia  first provided an overview of the structure, 
functions, standard-setting processes and achiev ements of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) 
Standardization Organization (GSO). The objectives of the GSO include maintaining safety, public 
health and consumer protection, promoting regional harmonization and facilitating intra-regional 
and international trade. Its members are the United  Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, 
Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Yemen, all of which ar e also Members of the WTO. To date, GSO had 
developed more than 12,000 technical regulations, standards and related conformity assessment 
procedures for adoption by its members. He pointed out that the current procedures for the notification of technical regulations elaborated by the GSO to the WTO were unnecessarily cumbersome, duplicative and complex as each member state submitted a separate notification for 
the same technical regulation, based on a dr aft prepared by the GSO, and forwarded any 
comments received back to the relevant GSO tec hnical committee. If the GSO could operate as a 
notification authority and submit notifications related to regional technical regulations on behalf of 
its member states, this would facilitate the timely submission of relevant notifications, processing 
of comments, and completion of draft regulations. As a first step, the GSO had requested to become an Observer in the TBT Committee.  
9.  The representative of Peru first explained that the Andean Community was a supranational and 
sub-regional organization with Bolivia, Colomb ia, Ecuador and Peru as its members and then 
provided information on its legal basis, structure and transparency provisions related to technical regulations developed at the national or regional  level. The presidency of the Andean Community 
and its various bodies rotated among its members on an annual basis and Peru held currently the 
Presidency. The "Andean Quality System" aimed to eliminate unnecessary technical barriers to trade and improve the quality of goods produced in  the sub-region through its activities in the 
areas of standards, technical regulations, accr editation and metrology. Expert groups with 
representation from the member states prepared draft technical regulations of interest to the 
region. These were then notified to the WTO, on behalf of all members, by the member holding the 
Presidency of the Andean Community, through a multi-symbol notification document. The notifying 
Member also received comments from other WTO Members and forwarded these to the sub-regional expert group. Once comments had been reviewed and incorporated as appropriate, the final regulation was approved and notified to the WTO. All notifications submitted under the 
transparency obligations of the Andean Community and the WTO were tracked through an online 
information system called SIRT.
6 
10.  With respect to the Developments in Online Tools, the WTO Secretariat announced that, 
further to discussions held at the Committee m eeting of March 2014, the specific trade concerns 
(STC) section of the TBT IMS had been modified so as to allow referenced minutes and 
                                               
6 http://extranet.comunidadandin a.org/sirt/public/index.aspx   G/TBT/GEN/167 
 
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  notifications to be opened directly from the relevant STC pages. Concerning online notifications, 
currently eighteen Members were using the TBT No tification Submission System (TBT NSS) and 
one-third of all notifications were being submitted through the system. Delegations interested in using the TBT NSS were invited to contact the Secretariat.
7  
11.  The representative of the European Union  recalled that they had made a submission 
regarding transparency in 2012 during the Sixth Tr iennial Review of the TBT Agreement, including 
suggestions for an online system for submission of TBT notifications. Following its participation in 
the test phase launched by the WTO, the EU ha d submitted 94 notifications through the TBT NSS 
and was overall very satisfied with the positive outcomes. Thanks to the new system, the WTO Secretariat was now able to issue notifications within two days of reception whereas this had previously taken one to two weeks. It was also possible to track the status of submitted 
notifications through the system's dashboard and create templates to ease the preparation of 
same type of notifications. The one drawback of the system for the EU was the necessity to copy 
and paste the content of the notifications prepared  into the TBT NSS. The EU proposed that the 
system allow for uploading pdf documents directly to the system, a practice the EU was familiar 
with through other internal processes. The EU  encouraged the use of the system by other 
Members and hoped that the short turnaround could be maintained even if more Members started 
using the system. 
12.  The representative of Kenya  introduced the new NotifyKenya TBT website, which had been 
developed with support from the USAID to capture and store TBT notifications submitted to the WTO. The website allowed the public to view the latest notifications for which the comment period 
had not expired and undertake searches according to a variety of criteria. Interested users could 
also register by entering their personal details and selecting countries and categories of products 
they were interested in. This allowed them to re ceive alerts based on their preferences, submit 
comments on notifications and request full texts of regulations. Currently the data from 
notifications was fed manually to the system but Kenyan officials were working with the WTO Secretariat to link the WTO and Kenyan systems th rough the existing XML feed from the TBT IMS. 
At the same time, it was suggested by delegations that the WTO develop a similar centralized alert 
system, which would benefit all Members. Keny a had also started using the TBT NSS, which 
allowed for faster processing and the WTO Secretariat had been very helpful in providing clarifications and correcting errors when necessary.  
13.  Finally, a representative of the WTO Secretariat 's Economic Research and Statistics Division 
demonstrated the upgraded functions of the Integr ated Trade Intelligence Portal (I-TIP), which 
was a powerful analytical tool aimed at bringing together in one system all non-tariff measures 
notified to the WTO.
8 The Secretariat noted that more than half of the 30,000 notifications 
currently contained in the system were in the TBT area. While this tool allowed for searches based on a variety of criteria, one drawback for co mpanies and traders interested in TBT and SPS 
notifications was that in most cases it was not clear whether the notified measure had actually 
entered into force. It was proposed that the Committee consider addressing this issue. Also, it was very important to identify the HS Codes/ICS Codes in the notifications to facilitate product-specific searches. A specific TBT/SPS module was being planned to tailor the system to the needs of 
TBT/SPS users, for example regarding comme nt periods and further details of STCs. 
14.  On a personal note , I found the presentations to be very informative and helpful for sharing 
ideas and good practices, as well as challenges, regarding transparency. The comments and 
questions made during the discussion helped us dig deeper on this matter and I would encourage 
delegations to reflect further on effective means of implementing and benefitting from the transparency obligations of the TBT Agreement. I fo und the discussion on regional coordination on 
transparency particularly interesting and it may be a topic the Committee could consider during 
the upcoming triennial review. Also, while not new,  different forms of "Alert" systems are growing 
and becoming more advanced, as examples by Keny a and the United States showed. I also note a 
suggestion from the floor (Canada) that the WTO could look into developing a centralized alert 
system for TBT notifications. Finally, I encourage Members to continue making use of the on-line 
TBT NSS. 
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7 una.flanagan@wto.org 
8 http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/itip_e.htm   G/TBT/GEN/167 
 
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  ANNEX 
PRESENTATIONS 
The following presentations were made during the Thematic Session:1 
 
1  FUNCTIONING OF ENQUIRY POINTS 
 Members' experiences in encouraging the partic ipation of the private sector in providing 
comments on draft regulations, and building support  among interested stakeholders in the private 
sector for the services of the enquiry points2 
 Ukraine  – Ukraine's experience: cooperation of governmental and non-governmental 
institutions (Ms. Oleksandra Onishchuk) 
 Kenya  – The National Consultative process in Kenya (Ms. Lucy Ikonya) 
 United States – How the U.S. Enquiry Point interacts with the private sector on providing 
information about how to monitor and provide comments on measures notified through the WTO (Ms. MaryAnn Hogan, NIST) 
 United States  – How U.S. regulators engage the private sector in the development of U.S. 
proposed regulations (Mr. Bryan O'Byrne) 
2  TRANSPARENCY IN STANDARD-SETTING
3 
 Members' experiences 
 Egypt  – Procedures of the Egyptian Organization for Standardization and Quality (Mrs. 
Rehab Abdel Aziz Mohamed, EOS) 
3  REGIONAL EXPERIENCES 
 The role of regional organizations in enhancing implementation of the TBT Agreement's 
transparency provisions 
 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia  – Gulf Standards Organization (GSO) and TBT notifications (Dr. 
Sufyan Al Irhayim, GSO) 
 Peru – Andean Community and TBT notifi cations (Ms. Rocío Barreda Santos) 
4  DEVELOPMENTS IN ONLINE TOOLS4 
 Members' experiences in the use of the TBT NSS and TBT IMS 
 European Union  – EU experience with the use of the TBT NSS (Ms. Sigrid Brettel) 
 Kenya  – The use of the TBT NSS in Kenya (Ms. Lucy Ikonya) 
 Searching the WTO Integrated Trade Intelligence Portal (I-TIP)5 for TBT-related information 
(notifications and STCs)  (WTO Secretariat ) 
____________ 
 
                                               
1 The full programme of this Thematic Session was circulated in JOB/TBT/104/Rev.1 (11 June 2014). 
2 See: G/TBT/1/Rev.11, paragraph 4.5.2.1(c.ii), page 34. 
3 See: G/TBT/1/Rev.11, paragraph 3.2(c.iii), page 16. 
4 See: G/TBT/1/Rev.11, paragraph 4.4.4, page 32. 
5 http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/itip_e.htm .