WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/2/Add.98 
6 November 2007 
 
 (07-4830) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE AGREEMENT  
ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE 
 
Communication from the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam
 
 
 
  The following statement under Article 15.2 of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade 
has been received from the So cialist Republic of Viet Nam
. 
 
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 I. INTRODUCTION 
1. Pursuant to Article 15.2 of the WTO Ag reement on Technical Barriers to Trade 
(TBT Agreement) and Viet Nam’s commitments in pa ragraph 303 of the Report of the Working Party 
on the Accession of Viet Nam, the Government of th e Socialist Republic of Viet Nam would like to 
inform the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade following measures which have been in 
existence or taken to ensure the implementa tion and administration of the TBT Agreement. 
II. CONSISTENCY OF VIET NAM’S TECHNICAL REGULATIONS, STANDARDS 
AND CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES WITH THE TBT 
AGREEMENT  
2. Viet Nam’s technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures will be 
formulated and adopted to fulfil those legitimate objectives which are in line with the TBT Agreement 
and the following Viet Namese laws and regulati ons:  Law on Standards and Technical Regulations, 
Ordinance on Goods Quality, Ordinance on Metrol ogy; Ordinance on Consumer Rights Protection 
and Law on the Enactment of Legal Normative Documents. These legitimate objectives are, inter 
alia:  national security requirements; prevention of d eceptive practices; protection of human health or 
safety, animal or plant life or health, or the environment. 
3. Viet Nam’s technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures shall 
ensure transparency, publicity and non–discrimin ation, so as not to cause unnecessary obstacles to 
production, trade and commercial activities.   
4. Wherever appropriate, Viet Nam’s standards and technical regulations should be based on 
product requirements in terms of performance rath er than design or descriptive characteristics. G/TBT/2/Add.98 
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  III. TRANSPARENCY  
A. N
ATIONAL NOTIFICATION AUTHORITY AND ENQUIRY POINT  
5. As stated in Paragraph 303 of the Report of the Working Party on the Accession of Viet Nam 
to the WTO, Viet Nam set up the TBT Viet Nam National Notification Authority and Enquiry Point 
(in short TBT VIET NAM OFFICE) in the year 2003. This was notified to the Working Party on the 
Accession of Viet Nam.  This TBT VIET NAM OFFICE is part of the Directorate for Standards and 
Quality (in short STAMEQ or TCVN as registered as a member of ISO), Ministry of Science and 
Technology of Viet Nam. 
6. The address of the TBT Viet Nam Office is: 
 8 Hoang Quoc Viet Road 
 Cau Giay District 
 Hanoi, Viet Nam  Tel:  +(844) 7911599/7913441  Fax:  +(844) 7911595/7912145  E-mail:  tbtvn@tcvn.gov.vn 
 
7. As mentioned in paragraphs 295 and 303, for the purpose of greater transparency and 
predictability, Viet Nam has established the TB T Network including TBT points in the concerned 
ministries and local authorities by Prime Minister's Decision No. 114/2005/QD-TTg of 26 May 2005.  This network supports the National Notification Authority and Enquiry Point (TBT VIET NAM 
OFFICE) in dealing with the obligations of TBT notifications and enquiries under the TBT 
Agreement. 
B. C
OMMENTS  
8. When formulating technical regulations, sta ndards and conformity assessment procedures, 
Viet Nam will give non-discriminatory considera tion to comments from the concerned organizations 
and individuals, including those in other WTO Members.   
9. As stated in the Law on Standards and Techni cal Regulations, the period of time for public 
comment is at least 60 days from the date of notif ication, except for urgent cases of health, safety, 
protection of the environment, or national security.  
C. PUBLICATIONS  
10. Technical regulations and conformity assess ment procedures will be published by the 
approving technical regulation agencies (mainly line ministries) in their respective publications and 
websites. 
11. From 2008, the Ministry of Science and Technology will publish annually the catalogue of 
new technical regulations as stated in the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations .   G/TBT/2/Add.98 
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  12. National standards will be notified in the a nnual catalogues and/or supplements thererof by 
the Information Centre of STAMEQ. The contact address is:  
The Information Centre of STAMEQ 
8 Hoang Quoc Viet Road Cau Giay District 
Hanoi - Viet Nam 
Tel: +(844) 7564268; 7562608 Fax:  +(844) 8361556 E-mail:  tttt@tcvn.gov.vn 
 
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