G/TBT/W/395  
 
15 January 2015  
(15-0266)  Page: 1/3  
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
 PROPOSAL FOR FURTHER IMPROVEMENT OF THE WTO TBT ONLINE NOTIFICATION 
SUBMISSION SYSTEM (TBT NSS) 
SEVENTH TRIENNIAL REVIEW 
Submission from Uganda 
The following submission, dated 14 January 2015,  is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of Uganda. 
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1  BACKGROUND 
1.1.  During the Sixth Triennial Review of the operation and implementation of World Trade 
Organization (WTO) Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) that was carried 
out in 2012, the WTO TBT Committee requested the Secretariat to develop a TBT online Notification Submission System (TBT NSS) to fost er more expedient processing and circulation of 
TBT notifications by the Secretariat. 
1.2.  The Committee also noted that the TBT N SS and TBT Information Management System (TBT 
IMS) should be developed in a flexible manner in order to accommodate the particularities of the 
TBT Agreement. In this context, the Committ ee suggested that the TBT NSS and IMS should 
include functionalities that allow for the use of a standardized pdf template for uploading notification forms; the development of criteria such as common product categories encompassing 
different Harmonized System (HS) or International Classification for Standards (ICS) codes to 
facilitate the indication of products covered by no tifications; the development of standardized alert 
systems based on dates and products of interest ; and the development of systems that allow for 
improved links with Members' own websites and databases such as web services. 
2  TBT COMMITTEE SEVENTH SPECIAL MEETING ON PROCEDURES FOR INFORMATION 
EXCHANGE, JUNE 2013 
2.1.  The Secretariat presented the TBT NSS in the Seventh Special Meeting on Procedures for 
Information Exchange and informed the Committee th at the system was developed in response to 
the mandate of the Sixth Triennial Review. The repr esentative of the Secretariat explained that the 
TBT NSS allowed Members to submit notifications online, and was aimed at facilitating the submission and processing of notifica tions by Members and the Secretariat. 
2.2.  At the time of the meeting, the Secretariat informed Members that the TBT NSS was 
functional but remained in a state of live testing. The Secretariat also informed the Committee that three Members had taken part in the testing phase including United States (US), European Union 
(EU), and Canada and were submitting notifications through the TBT NSS. The Secretariat stressed 
that the objective of the TBT NSS was to improve efficiency in the work of the Secretariat and 
Members, which was especially important given the growing number of notifications being 
submitted. The Secretariat also encouraged other Me mbers to participate in the live testing of the 
TBT NSS. 
2.3.  The EU made a presentation of its experience  with the TBT NSS. The representative of the EU 
stated that the TBT NSS was intuitive to use and ha d accelerated the processing of notifications by 
the Secretariat. The EU had already submitted over ten (10) notifications online. The EU however G/TBT/W/395 
 
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  informed Members that submitting notifications through the TBT NSS in its current testing phase 
was time consuming due to the need to follow up on notifications and double check for errors. The representative of the EU stressed the need for im provements before the official launch of the TBT 
NSS, namely, the removal of all bugs, the publication of a help manual, and an email alert system. 
In terms of future developments, the EU sugg ested further automation of submission of 
notifications to the WTO and a solution whereby Members could submit a pdf form directly to the TBT NSS. 
2.4.  The US shared its experiences with using the TBT NSS. The US informed the Committee that 
while it had submitted seven (7) notifications without any incident through the TBT NSS, three (3) notifications had encountered issues and delays in submission, and another two were eventually submitted using the old approach to avoid delays. Th e US noted that it took longer to use the TBT 
NSS than to submit notifications via the old approach, and that in order for the TBT NSS to 
become a long-term viable option for submitting notifications, additional improvements were necessary. The representative of the US also noted that feedback and the concerns of the US were 
being taken into account by the Secretariat. 
2.5.  Canada also shared its reflections on the proposed TBT NSS and welcomed the introduction 
of new technologies such as the TBT NSS, which helped to increase efficiencies, streamline 
processes and strengthen ties between Members. However, Canada noted that there was scope for 
further improvements to the usability as well as the efficiency of the TBT NSS, in order to ensure widest possible uptake across the WTO Membership. In particular, Canada highlighted the need for: more intuitive navigation and layout such as larger boxes and more prominent buttons; 
making the TBT NSS faster and less burdensome to use; and new ways of storing information in 
the system such as the implementation of a templa te function, and allowing Members to assign an 
internal identification number to notifications under preparation in the TBT NSS. 
3  TBT COMMITTEE THEMATIC SESSION ON TRANSPARENCY, JUNE 2014 
3.1.  At the TBT Committee Thematic Session on tr ansparency in June 2014, the EU recalled that 
they made a submission regarding transparency in 2012 during the Sixth Triennial Review of the 
TBT Agreement, including suggestions for an online  system for submission of TBT notifications. 
3.2.  Following its participation in the test phase launched by the WTO, the EU had submitted 
ninety four (94) notifications through the TBT NSS and was overall very satisfied with the positive outcomes. The EU noted that the WTO Secretariat was now able to issue notifications within two 
days of reception whereas this had previously ta ken one to two weeks. The EU informed Members 
that it was also possible to track the status of submitted notifications through the system's dashboard and create templates to ease the prep aration of the same type of notifications. 
3.3.  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. In  this respect the EU proposed that the system 
should allow for uploading pdf documents directly to the TBT NSS, a practice the EU was familiar 
with through other internal processes. The EU encouraged other Members to use the TBT NSS and 
hoped that the short turnaround time could be maintained even if more Members started using the system. 
4  EXPERIENCE OF UGANDA WITH USING THE TBT NSS 
4.1.  Uganda joined the other WTO Members to live-test the TBT NSS in July 2013 and submitted a 
total of seventy eight (78) TBT notifications using the system during the Live-testing phase. Errors 
reported by Uganda were fixed by the Secretariat during the Live-testing phase. Uganda has also 
trained officials of its Ministries, Departments an d Regulatory Agencies (MDAs) responsible for the 
implementation and administration of the TBT and SPS Agreements on how to use the TBT and SPS NSSs in May 2014. The training was conducted using the TBT NSS Training Environment and 
SPS NSS Exercise Platform respectively. In total, as of January 2015, Uganda has submitted one 
hundred and nineteen (119) TBT notifications using the TBT NSS during the live-testing phase and after the system was launched by the Secretariat in October 2013. G/TBT/W/395 
 
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  5  TBT NSS ACCOUNT THAT HAS THE RIGHT TO PREPARE NOTIFICATIONS ONLY 
5.1.  In Uganda, like in many other Members, implementation and administration of the TBT 
Agreement cut across the mandates of several MDAs. Several MDAs are therefore responsible for 
formulation and enforcement of regulations in their respective sectors. Uganda has decentralized the use of the TBT NSS account that has the right to prepare notifications only to MDAs in order to 
make each of the MDAs responsible for uploadin g notifications of draft TBT measures it has 
formulated into the TBT NSS. Furthermore, de centralization of the use of the TBT NSS was 
undertaken to continuously raise awareness among MDAs of the importance of complying with the 
notification obligation of WTO TBT Agreemen t ,  m a k e  M D A s  b e  m o r e  e n g a g e d  i n  t h e  
implementation of the transparency provisions, an d to enhance internal coordination between the 
Uganda TBT National Enquiry Point and Notification Authority with MDAs. 
5.2.  During preparation for the training of officials from MDAs on how to use the TBT NSS to 
submit notifications, Uganda enquired from the Secretariat whether the TBT NSS and TBT NSS 
Training Environment accounts that has the right to prepare notifications only provided by the 
Secretariat to Uganda were multi-users. In other words, whether more than one user can 
simultaneously logon to the systems using the same username and password and prepare 
notifications. In response, the Secretariat created twenty (20) different accounts for Uganda on the TBT NSS Training Environment. 
6  REJECTION OF SUBMITTED TBT NOTIFICATIONS 
6.1.  When notifications submitte d using the TBT NSS are rejected by the WTO Central Registry of 
Notifications (CRN), it is returned to the draft (p ending) notifications list. The National Notification 
Authority can therefore only become  aware of the rejected notifications upon logging on to the TBT 
NSS. 
7  PROPOSALS 
7.1.  As outlined in preceding paragraphs, during  the "Live-testing" phase and after the Secretariat 
launched the TBT NSS, some Members that have been using the system have called for 
improvement of the TBT NSS to incorporate new func tionalities as well as address their concerns 
based on their experiences with using the system to submit notifications online. Uganda would like 
to propose the following further improvement of the TBT NSS from the point of view of making the 
TBT NSS more user-friendly in the context of th e Seventh Triennial Review of the operation and 
implementation of the WTO TBT Agreement. 
7.1  MODIFICATION OF THE TBT NSS TO MA KE THE ACCOUNT THAT HAS THE RIGHT TO 
PREPARE NOTIFICATIONS ONLY MULTI-USER 
7.2.  Given the institutional arrangement for implementation and administration of the TBT 
Agreement in Uganda and the fact that the use of the TBT NSS to submit notifications has been 
decentralized, it is possible for more than one MDA to simultaneously logon the TBT NSS to prepare notifications. 
7.3.  Uganda proposes that the TBT NSS should be modified to make the account that has the 
right to prepare notifications only multi-user to cater for situations when more than one user may simultaneously logon the TBT NSS using the same username and password to prepare notifications. 
7.2  E-MAIL ALERTS TO NOTIFY  REJECTION OF NOTIFICATIONS 
7.4.  Rejected notifications are supposed to be re -examined, reviewed, and edited by Notification 
Authorities before they can be resubmitted through the TBT NSS workflow. 
7.5.  Uganda proposes that rejection of notifi cations by WTO CRN should trigger an automatic e-
mail alert to the National Notification Authorities so  that officials charged with the responsibility of 
submitting notifications do not have to logon the TBT NSS to monitor the progress of processing submitted notifications by the CRN and act prom ptly to review and resubmit the rejected 
notifications. 
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