G/TBT/GEN/151  
 
25 June 2013  
(13-3285)  Page: 1/2  
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
REPORT BY THE CHAIRMAN ON THE SEVENTH  
SPECIAL MEETING ON PROCEDURES FOR INFORMATION EXCHANGE  
UNDER THE WTO TBT AGREEMENT  
18 JUNE 2013 
Chairman's Report1 
This Report was delivered by the Chairman of the WTO TBT Committee at the meeting of 
19-20 June 2013. 
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1.  Pursuant to its 1995 decision to convene, on a biennial basis, "regular meetings of persons 
responsible for information exchange, including persons responsible for Enquiry Points and 
notifications"2, the TBT Committee held its Seventh Special Meeting on Procedures for Information 
Exchange on 18 June 2013.  
2.  This Special Meeting provided Members with an opportunity to discuss technical issues related 
to notification procedures and the operation of enquiry points. Discussions were held in three panel sessions covering: (i) online notification and the TBT Notification Submission System (TBT NSS); 
(ii) good practices in notification and the use of notification formats; and, (iii) function of enquiry 
points. The final programme of the meeting is contained in document G/TBT/GEN/150. 
3.  The first session addressed developments in  the new TBT NSS. The Secretariat presented an 
overview of the TBT NSS and prov ided an update on its status. The system is currently live and 
three Members – the European Union, United Stat es and Canada – are testing it by submitting 
actual notifications. These three Members shared th eir experiences in this regard. They said that 
while the TBT NSS is user friendly and a good step forward, a number of significant bugs need to 
be resolved. In its current state, it is time-consuming to use – and does not improve efficiency. 
Improvements, such as the ability to create new notifications from a template (e.g. on the basis of an old notification), an email alert system, an d a dashboard homepage should be implemented 
prior to the official launch of the TBT NSS. The Secretariat is committed to address these issues 
and welcomed other interested Members to participate in live testing of the TBT NSS.  
4.  In the second session, Members discussed the us e of notification formats. The European Union 
presented its proposal, circulated in JOB/TBT/48, for common criteria to guide Members' use of 
different notification formats. Differences in how Members notify, whether under a new 
notification, revision, addendum or corrigendum ha ve important implications for transparency and 
the ability of Members to track a measure through its regulatory lifecycle. It was noted that the 
SPS Committee had developed guidelines on the use of SPS notification formats and I have asked 
the Secretariat to explore whether we could hear their experiences. South Africa explained their 
use of notification templates and identified some challenges that they continue to encounter, such 
as accurately identifying HS codes, and that Me mbers often did not identify a clear objective or 
rationale for the notified measure. 
5.   The third and final session concerned the Func tioning of Enquiry Points. During this session we 
heard six presentations from Members. This sessi on provided a good overview of the different 
                                               
1 Mr. Jingo Kikukawa (Japan). Th is Report is provided on the Chairman's own responsibility. 
2 G/TBT/1/Rev.10, page 35. G/TBT/GEN/151 
 
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  ways and means that Members operate their enquiry points, coordinate internally, and reach out 
to stakeholders. Brazil underlined efforts to in form Brazilian exporters about requirements in 
export markets and other services available to in dustry through its Enquiry Point. In particular, 
Brazil was seeking to better engage with small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The United 
States explained that their national Enquiry Po int provides information regarding US measures 
proposed at the federal and state-levels to a wide  range of domestic stakeholders, as well as other 
WTO Members. The benefits of cooperation betw een Members' Enquiry Points were emphasized, 
especially for business. Japan explained that its two (separate) Enquiry Points had a range of 
functions including responding to enquiries from Members, internal coordination with relevant government ministries for the purposes of noti fication and making comments on other Members' 
notifications – as well as providing advice on TBT matters. China described the functioning of its 
national TBT Enquiry Point, and it was noted that it undertook significant efforts to translate 
notifications into Chinese for domestic stakeholders. China explained that language obstacles constituted a serious barrier to engagement of domestic stakeholders; to address this matter, 
specialized branches of the Enquiry Point reached out to stakeholders directly to provide additional 
assistance. The European Union gave a brief overview  of the functioning of its Enquiry Point and its 
recent technical cooperation with other Members' enquiry points. We also saw a video targeting 
stakeholders and the public at large, which show s how an exporter might make use of the EU TBT 
Enquiry Point. Malaysia presented the role of its TBT Enquiry Point within national coordination efforts to administer the TBT Agreement, including in respect of their TBT National Mirror Committee. One common theme of this session was the means by which national enquiry points 
served to facilitate a more effective coordination on TBT issues, including by engaging 
stakeholders – domestic as well as foreign.  
6.  Let me conclude by noting that the discussi ons at the Special Meeting were informative. The 
meeting provided opportunity for a useful exchan ge on Members’ experiences. We learned about 
the new TBT NSS, and Members showed interest in its further development. Clearly, even though enquiry points have been around for some time now – big challenges remain, such as: how to 
enhance domestic consultation and coordination with regulators, including ensuring the timely 
notification of national measures; and, how to encourage stakeholders and enterprises to take advantage of information and opportunities available to them through TBT Enquiry Points. The discussions have provided us with a solid basis fo r future work and I look forward to a continued 
exchange of information between Members on the implementation of the TBT Agreement's 
transparency obligations. I believe that this technical discussion can and should help us move closer to the full implementation of the numerous TBT Committee recommendations on 
transparency.  
7.  A summary report of the Seventh Special Meet ing on Procedures for Information Exchange will 
be prepared by the Secretariat and presentations us ed during this event will be made publically 
available on the WTO TBT Webpage. 
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