G/TBT/W/526  
 
24 April 2018  
(18-2589) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
PENDING REQUESTS FOR  OBSERVER  STATUS IN THE TBT CO MMITTEE  
STATEMENT BY TURKEY  
This document contains information provided by Turkey  at the TBT Committee meeting of   
21-22 March 2018  under Agenda Item 5 (Observers).   
 
_______________  
 
 
1.  We wanted to take the floor to declare our support for the approval of the Standards and 
Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries’ (SMIIC) request for observer status at the Technical 
Barriers to Trade Committee.  
2.  As you know, SMIIC is an affiliate institution to the Organi zation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), 
which aims at developing the infrastructures, economies and trade capacities of its member 
countries; and consequently enhancing intra and international trade.  
3.  To that aim, OIC has prioritized standardization as a key element to push up the member 
countries’ capacities of export and competition and of course to ensure safety and efficiency in any 
product or service.  
4.  As a result, the SMIIC was established in 2010. It provides a sound mechanism for 
harmonization of stand ards among the OIC countries and for the preparation of new ones in order 
to eliminate technical barriers to trade. Another area of priority for the SMIIC is the establishment 
of certification and accreditation schemes for the purpose of expediting the exc hange of goods. 
The SMIIC also aims at achieving uniformity in metrology and laboratory testing along with 
standardization activities. It is also engaged in education and training as well as technical 
assistance to the OIC Members in the domains of quality  infrastructure.  
5.  Since its establishment in 2010, the number of SMIIC Members has steadily been increasing 
and has already reached 38 Member States out of 57 OIC Members and we expect this number to 
increase even more shortly.  
6.   It is apparent that the SMII C and the WTO TBT Committee share the same ultimate objectives 
of eliminating technical barriers to trade through cooperation in the areas of standardization, 
conformity assessment, metrology and accreditation. In fact, the SMIIC already abides by the 
rules of the TBT Agreement as it accepts and complies with the Code of Good Practice for the 
preparation, adoption and application of standards, that is, Annex 3 to the TBT Agreement. In fact 
it is only an expected route for the SMIIC to follow as 24 Members o f SMIIC are already Members 
of the WTO and 8 are observer states.  
7.  Given what we have just explained, we would like to underline Turkey’s belief that participation 
of the SMIIC to the WTO TBT Committee with observer status will prove to be very beneficial for 
the SMIIC Member States to be notified timely of the latest developments in international trade. As 
an observer, the SMIIC could take essential steps to assist its Members to fulfill necessary 
requirements or to be aware of certain technical barriers t o trade. This will consequently work for 
the development of trade internationally.  G/TBT/W/526  
 
- 2 - 
 
  8.  In this sense, we would like to reiterate that we support granting observer status to the SMIIC 
and invite the WTO Members here to also support its request to be an observer  at the Committee.   
__________