. /.  
 WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/L/760 
8 November 2005 
 
 (05-5218) 
  
 
 
 
REPORT (2005) OF THE COMMITTEE ON  TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE 
 
 
1. The Committee held its thirty-sixth to thir ty-eighth regular meetings on 22-23 March, 
16-17 June and 2 November 2005, respectively, u nder the Chairmanship of Mr. Sudhakar Dalela 
(India) and Mr. Margers Krams (Latvia).1  At each of the meetings in 2005, the Committee heard 
statements by a number of Members informing the Committee of measures taken to ensure the implementation and administration of the Agreement.  Several specific trade concerns were brought to 
the attention of the Committee with regard to thei r potential adverse trade effects, or inconsistency 
with the Agreement.   
2. During the reporting period, the Committee discu ssed issues arising from the Third Triennial 
Review of the Operation and Implementation of  the Agreement under Article 15.4 (G/TBT/13), 
namely:  good regulatory practice, transparency  procedures, conformity assessment procedures, 
technical assistance, as well as other elements.  The Committee agreed on a course of action to 
increase transparency in the identification and pr ioritization of technical assistance needs and 
developed a mechanism for the voluntary notificati on of specific technical assistance needs and 
responses.  As of 2 November 2005, this mechanis m will be applied on a trial basis for two years.
2 
3. With a view to improving Members' implemen tation of Articles 5-9 of the Agreement and 
promoting a better understanding of Members' confor mity assessment systems, the Third Triennial 
Review set out a Work Programme3 to address the following issues:  supplier's declaration of 
conformity (SDoC), accreditation, Members' existing conformity assessment procedures and 
practices, and the different approaches to conformity assessment, including the acceptance of conformity assessment results.  Pursuant to th is work programme, the TBT Committee held a 
Workshop on SDoC on 21 March 2005
4 and initiated the preparation of a workshop on different 
approaches to conformity assessmen t, to be held in March 2006. 
4. The TBT Committee began preparation of the F ourth Triennial Review based on the Work 
Programme endorsed by the Committee in November 2004.5  A number of documents were submitted 
in this context.  On good regulatory prac tice, papers from the European Communities 
(G/TBT/W/253), the United States (G/TBT/W/258) and the Secretariat (JOB(05)/107) were discussed.  On transparency, discussions were he ld based on papers from Canada (G/TBT/W/234), 
China (G/TBT/W/252) the European Commun ities (G/TBT/W/253) and the Secretariat 
(G/TBT/W/250).  China tabled proposals on t echnical assistance (G/TBT/W/252), special and 
differential treatment (G/TBT/W/252) and intellectua l property right (IPR) issues in standardization 
(G/TBT/W/251).  On conformity assessment proced ures, two background documents were prepared 
by the Secretariat:  one general (JOB(05)/261)  and another specific to SDoC (JOB(05)/30). 
                                                     
 
1  G/TBT/M/35-37. 
2  G/TBT/16. 
3 The Third Triennial Review instructs the Committee to "take stock of the progress made on this Work 
Programme and reflect it in its Annual Report to the Council for Trade in Goods" (G/TBT/13, paragraph 41). 
4 A summary of this workshop is c ontained in Annex 1 of G/TBT/M/35. 
5   G/TBT/M/35, Annex 3. G/L/760 
Page 2  
 
 5. The Committee carried out, at its meeting of 22 -23 March 2005, the Tenth Annual Review of 
the Implementation and Operation of the TBT Ag reement under Article 15.3 (G/TBT/15) and the 
Tenth Annual Review of the Code of Good Practice for the Preparation, Adoption and Application of 
Standards.  This work was based on the followi ng background documents:  a list of standardizing 
bodies that have accepted the Code in 2004 (G/TBT/C S/1/Add.9), a list of standardizing bodies that 
have accepted the Code since 1 January 1995 (G/TBT /CS/2/Rev.11) and the tenth edition of the WTO 
TBT Standards Code Directory prepared by the ISO/IEC Information Centre.   
6. The Committee carried out, at its meeting of  2 November 2005, the Fourth Annual 
Transitional Review mandated in the Protocol of  Accession of the People's Republic of China.   
7. During the regular meetings of the TBT Comm ittee held in 2005, representatives of the 
Codex, IEC, ISO, ITC, OECD, OIML, UNCTAD and UNIDO updated the Committee on the 
activities relevant to the work of the TBT Committee, including on technical assistance. 
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