G/TBT/GEN/253  
 
4 February 2019  
(19-0619) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade    
 
 STATEMENTS DELIVERED  BY THE WTO SECRETAR IAT AT  
THE TBT COMMITTEE ME ETING  OF 14-15 NOVEMBER 2018  
This document contains the statements made by the WTO Secretariat  under Agenda item 4  at the 
14-15 November 2018 TBT Committee meeting . 
 
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ENQUIRY POINT GUIDE  
1.1.  As you will recall, an advance copy of the Enquiry Point Guide was shared with the 
Committee at the June meeting so as to allow Members time to comment and we thank t hose 
members for taking the time to provide comments on that advance copy. We are now pleased to 
share the final Enquiry Point Guide.  
1.2.  As I already mentioned in June, this Guide is based on the results on a survey of EPs. What it 
certainly shows is there i s no one size fits all and EPs function differently across the membership. 
The guide is not intended, nor should it be read, as prescriptive. The intention is to illustrate 
various practices that appear to be efficient and effective in implementing the TBT  Agreement's 
transparency provisions.  
1.3.  At risk of stating the obvious: the Secretariat does not itself operate an enquiry point. This is 
why this guide attributes much importance to the responses received from the survey.  
1.4.  From our side, we will use this gu ide in capacity building activities. We invite you to share it 
with those who work in Enquiry Points. It might also be useful for those working in SPS Enquiry 
Points and NNAs, and trade facilitation Enquiry Points. Please do let us know how you use the 
guide.  
1.5.  It is timely as this work originates from the last triennial review in November 2015 where the 
Secretariat was requested  "… based on experiences shared by Members and for the purposes of 
training and capacity building, to prepare a guide on best pract ices for enquiry points … ". 
1.6.  Copies are available at the back of the room in the three languages – please take one per 
delegation for the moment. More will be made available and it will be available as a pdf on the TBT 
gateway page on the WTO website .  
1.7.  We very much appreciate the cooperation of Members in preparing this guide and we hope 
you find it useful.  
EPING : UPDATE  ON THE SPS/TBT NOTI FICATION ALERT  SYSTEM  
2.1.  As you may recall, ePing  was launched almost exactly two years ago during the November 
2016 meeting of the TBT Committee by the three partner agencies: UNDESA, ITC and WTO.  
2.2.  Since then, the Secretariat's wo rk on ePing has continued on various fronts and I would like 
to provide a few updates:  
2.3.  First, on user registrations: Just before its official launch in 2016, ePing had around 700 
users, mainly from the countries that had piloted an earlier version of the system, including G/TBT/GEN/253  
 
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  Australia and Uganda. As of today, ePing has 5003 registered users from 169 countries. In fact, we 
registered our 5000 th user yesterday afternoon, from an SME, the Agricultural Women's 
Cooperative based i n St Kitts and Nevis, where our SPS colleagues are currently delivering a 
national seminar. Regarding E nquiry Point registrations, upon their request, 62 TBT E nquiry Points  
have so far been granted access to ePing's Enquiry Point Management Tool. This mean s that they 
can manage domestic users and reach out to them through ePing if they wish. So there continues 
to be interest in ePing, both from the private and public sector.  
2.4.  Second, with respect to capacity building and outreach, we regularly integrate ePi ng into our 
regular SPS and TBT training activities but we are also receiving an increasing number of technical 
assistance requests for training specifically on transparency and ePing. We are doing our best to 
respond favourably to these requests - with ou r limited human resources. Since the last 
Committee meeting, we have also uploaded an updated version of the user guide on the ePing 
website and have started work on an e -learning module for ePing.  
2.5.  Third, the Secretariat is working with partners UNDESA and  ITC to ensure that the ePing 
system undergoes the required technical maintenance and improvements over time, in light of 
feedback from users and also in line with the transparency -related recommendations of the 
Committee, which were just adopted in the co ntext of the Eighth Triennial Review.  
2.6.  Looking ahead, as already mentioned by the Chair person , there will be a transparency 
thematic session in June, where, among other issues, Members will be invited to share their 
experiences using ePing, especially in re aching out to the private sector. In preparation for the 
workshop, the Secretariat is planning to run a survey early next year. We also welcome interested 
Members to approach the Secretariat if they would like to share their ePing experience during the 
workshop. We will have some funding to bring speakers and participants from developing countries 
to this event. Further information will be circulated during the first quarter of 2019.  
 
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