WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/MA/W/93/Rev.1 
15 September 2009 
 
 (09-4322) 
Negotiating Group on Market Access Original:   English 
  
 
MARKET ACCESS FOR NON-AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 
 
Communication from the European Communities, Mauritius, 
 
Sri Lanka and the United States  
 
Revision  
 
 The following communication, dated 9 September 2007, is being circulated at the request of 
the delegations of the European Communities, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, and the United States. 
 
_______________ 
 
 
 
 
 The following submission, dated 9 September 2009,  is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegations of the European Communities, Maur itius, Sri Lanka, and the United States. These 
delegations understand and intend that, if WTO Members adopt this draft Understanding, it would be 
legally binding on Members and would constitute an interpretation of the Agreement on Technical 
Barriers to Trade set out in Annex 1A to the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade 
Organization.  As such it would be part of a covered agreement under the Understanding on Rules and 
Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes.     TN/MA/W/93/Rev.1 
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  Understanding on the Interpretation of  
the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade with respect to 
 the Labelling of Textiles, Clothing, Footwear, and Travel Goods  
 
 
Members , 
  Recalling  that pursuant to paragraph 16 of the Doha  Ministerial Declaration, Members agreed 
to negotiations aimed at reducing or, as appropria te, eliminating tariffs and non-tariff barriers on 
non-agricultural products; 
 
 Recognizing  the important contribution of the textile, clothing, footwear, and travel goods 
sectors to global economic growth and development;  
Desiring  to promote cooperative and effective a pproaches to address unnecessary obstacles to 
international trade and enhance trade in tex tiles, clothing, footwear, and travel goods; 
 Taking into account  that labelling has an important f unction of informing consumers of 
certain characteristics of textiles, clothing, footwear, and travel goods; 
 
Reaffirming  their existing obligation under the Agre ement on Technical Barriers to Trade 
(TBT Agreement) to ensure that technical regula tions and conformity assessment procedures are not 
prepared, adopted, or applied with a view to or  with the effect of creating unnecessary obstacles to 
international trade;   
 Desiring  to interpret the provisions of the TB T Agreement as they apply to labelling 
requirements for textiles, clothing, footwear, and travel goods; 
 
 Hereby agree  as follows: 
 
Scope   
 1. This Understanding applies to  the labelling of products specified in the Annex to this 
Understanding.  
 
       
Labelling 
 2. If a Member requires information on a label, a Member’s requirement to include any of the 
following information shall be rebuttably presumed to  be not more trade-restrictive than necessary 
under Articles 2.2 of the TBT Agreement:  
2.1 with respect to textiles and clothing, fiber content, country of origin, and care 
instructions
1;  
2.2 with respect to footwear, predominant materials of core parts2 and country of origin;  
and 
 2.3 with respect to travel goods, fiber content and country of origin. 
 
                                                     
 
  1 This presumption covers requirements using relevant international standards, or the relevant parts of 
such standards, as a basis for the Me mber’s technical regulations regarding care instructions on labels.    
2  There are three “core parts” of footwear: (1 ) upper, (2) lining and sock, and (3) outer sole.  TN/MA/W/93/Rev.1 
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  3. Members shall give positive consideration to permitting any require d information to be 
included on a non-permanent3 label rather than a permanent label.4   
 4. A technical regulation or conformity assessment procedure of a Member that:   
4.1 prohibits the information included on a la bel from being in more than one language, 
for example by prohibiting such information from being in a language other than the 
Member’s official language(s);  
 4.2 requires a label to be pre-approved, registered or certified;  
 
4.3 prohibits a label from including information that is not required by the Member, such 
as brand names;
5 or 
 4.4 specifies requirements that a label be of one or more materials;  
  
shall be rebuttably presumed to be more trade- restrictive than necessary to fulfill a legitimate 
objective within the meaning of Article 2.2 of the TBT Agreement or be more strict or be applied 
more strictly than is necessary to give the im porting Member adequate confidence that the product 
conforms with the applicable technical regulation within the meaning of Article 5.1.2 of the TBT 
Agreement.   
 
5. Notwithstanding Articles 2.9 and 5.6 of the TBT Agreement, if a Member proposes to adopt 
or amend a technical regulation or conformity asse ssment procedure with respect to labelling, in 
whole or in part, it shall:   
5.1 publish the proposed technical regulation or conformity assessment procedure in a 
publication at the earliest appropriate stage, in such a manner as to enable interested 
persons in other Members to become ac quainted with it and to submit comments 
before the Member finalizes the technical regulation or conformity assessment procedure; 
 
 5.2 notify other Members through the Secretar iat of the products to be covered by the 
proposed technical regulation or conformity assessment procedure, together with a brief indication of the measure’s objective and rationale and, to the extent applicable, 
an identification of the parts of the regula tion or procedure which in substance deviate 
from relevant international standards and, in the case of a permanent label, the reason 
for requiring information other than that covered by paragraphs 2.1-2.3 of this 
Understanding.  Such notifications shall take place at an early appropriate stage, when amendments can still be introd uced and comments taken into account;  
 5.3 allow no less than 60 days for Members to submit comments in writing.  The Member 
shall give favourable consideration to reasonable requests to extend the comment 
period; and 
 
                                                     
 
 3 "Non-permanent label" means any label on a product attached or affixed through stickers, hangtags, 
or through other similar means that can be removed or on the package of the product. 
 4 "Permanent label" means any label on a product that is securely attached or affixed through gluing, 
printing, sewing, embossing, silk screening, or other similar means.  
5 “Information” for purposes of subparagraph 4.3 means information related to the product or the 
marketing of the product and does not include information that is false, deceptive or misleading.  TN/MA/W/93/Rev.1 
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  5.4 discuss, upon request, any comments it receiv es with the Member or interested person 
providing them, and take these written comments and the results of these discussions into account in finalizing the measure, and p ublish or otherwise make available to the 
public, either in print or electronically, its  responses to significant issues raised in 
comments it receives no later than the date it publishes the final technical regulation 
or conformity assessment procedure.   
 
6. Notwithstanding Articles 2.10 and 5.7 of the TBT Agreement
, where urgent problems of 
safety, health, environmental protection or national security arise or threaten to arise for a Member, 
that Member may omit such of the steps enumerated in paragraph 5 as it finds necessary, provided that the Member upon adoption of a technical re gulation or conformity assessment procedure shall: 
 
6.1  publish the final technical regulation or conformity assessment procedure in a 
publication at the earliest appropriate time, in  such a manner as to enable interested 
persons in other Members to become acquainted with it; 
 
6.2  notify other Members through the Secretar iat of the products to be covered by the 
final technical regulation or conformity assessment procedure, together with a brief indication of the measure’s objective and rati onale, including the nature of the urgent 
problems, and, to the extent applicable, an identification of the parts of the regulation 
or procedure which in substance deviat e from relevant international standards 
and, in 
the case of a permanent la bel, the reason for requiring  information other than 
that covered by paragraphs 2.1-2.3 of this Understanding . 
 
6.3  allow interested persons and other Members to submit comments in writing and 
discuss these comments upon request with the Member or interested person providing them, and take these written comments and the results of these discussions into account in deciding whether to modify the regulation or procedure, and publish or otherwise make available to the public, either  in print or electronically, its responses 
to significant issues raised in comments it receives at the earliest appropriate date 
after it publishes the final technical regula tion or conformity assessment procedure. 
 
Final Provisions 
 
7. The Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade shall review the operation and implementation of this Understanding, including the list of products contained in the Annex, on an annual basis.  The 
Committee shall also review other developments in  technical regulations and conformity assessment 
procedures involving international trade in textiles, clothing, footwear, and tr avel goods of importance 
to this Understanding in accordance with the Committee’s procedures.
6   
 
8. The Annex to this Understanding c onstitutes an integral part thereof. 
 
 
                                                      
 6 It is understood that, for this purpose and to f acilitate transparency, exchanges of information, and 
discussions among Members, the WTO Secretariat will prepar e an annual report of the notifications received by 
the WTO Secretariat with respect to the labelling of textiles, clothing, footwear, and travel goods.   TN/MA/W/93/Rev.1 
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ANNEX 
 
TEXTILES, CLOTHING, FOOTWEAR AND  
TRAVEL GOODS SUBJECT TO THE UNDERSTANDING   
 
1.  With respect to textiles, clothing, and f ootwear, this Understanding shall cover all products 
contained in Chapters 50 through 65 of Harm onized Commodity Description and Coding System 
(HS) Nomenclature, except for the products listed below:  
HS Number
 Product Description  
 5001 - 5003 Silk Fiber  5101 - 5104 Wool Fiber 
 
5201 - 5203 Cotton Fiber  5301 - 5305 Other Vegetable Fibers  6506.10  Safety headgear (e.g. motorcycle helmets) 
 
6506.91  Rubber or plastic headgear  6506.99  Furskin & other headgear  
6507.00  Headbands, linings, cove rs, hat foundations, hat frames , peaks (visors), and chin 
straps, for headgear 
 6406  Footwear Parts    
2.   With respect to travel goods, this Unders tanding shall cover all prod ucts listed below:   
 HS Number
 Product Description  
 
ex 3926.90 Handbags made of beads, bugles and spangles, of plastics 
 42.02    Trunks, suit-cases, vanity-cases, ex ecutive-cases, brief-cases, school satchels, 
spectacle cases, binocular cases, camera cases, musical instrument cases, gun cases, 
holsters and similar containers; travelling- bags, insulated food or beverage bags, 
toilet bags, rucksacks, handbags, shoppi ng bags, wallets, purses, map-cases, 
cigarette-cases, tobacco-pouches, tool ba gs, sports bags, bottle-cases, jewellery 
boxes, powder-boxes, cutlery cases and similar containers, of leather or of composition leather, of sheeting of plastics, of textile materials, of vulcanized fiber or of paperboard, or wholly or mainly cove red with such materials or with paper. 
 
- Trunks, suit-cases, vanity-cases, executiv e-cases, brief-cases, school satchels and 
similar containers: 
 4202.11  With outer surface of leather, of composition leather, or of patent leather  TN/MA/W/93/Rev.1 
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  4202.12  With outer surface of plastics or of textile materials 
 4202.19  Other   
- Handbags, whether or not with shoulder strap, including those without handle: 
 
4202.21  With outer surface of leather, of composition leather or of patent leather  4202.22  With outer surface of sheeting of plastic or of textile materials  
4202.29  Other 
 
- Articles of a kind normally carried in the pocket or in the handbag: 
 4202.31  With outer surface of leather, of composition leather or of patent leather 
 
4202.32  With outer surface of sheeting of plastic or of textile materials  4202.39  Other  
- Other: 
 
4202.91  With outer surface of leather, of composition leather or of patent leather  4202.92  With outer surface of sheeting of plastic or of textile materials  
4202.99  Other 
 ex 4602.11 Luggage, handbags and flat goo ds, whether or not lined, of bamboo  
  ex 4602.12 Articles of a kind normally carried in  the pocket or in the handbag, of rattan  
 
ex 4602.12 Luggage, handbags and flat goods, whether or not lined, of rattan, nesoi  
 ex 4602.19 Luggage, handbags and flat goods, whether or not lined, of willow   
 ex 4602.19 Articles of a kind normally carried in the pocket or in the handbag, of palm leaf 
 
ex 4602.19 Luggage, handbags and flat goods, wh ether or not lined, of palm leaf, nesoi  
 ex 4602.19 Luggage, handba gs and flat goods, whether or not lined, made from plaiting materials 
nesoi  
 
9605.0              Travel sets for personal toilet, sewing or shoe or clothes cleaning 
 
 
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