WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/2/Add.99 
15 May 2008 
 (08-2246) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
 
 
 
IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE AGREEMENT  
ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE 
 
Communication from Albania   
 
Addendum  
 
  The following statement under Article 15.2 of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade 
has been received from Albania
. 
 
_______________ 
 
 
I. INTRODUCTION 
1. In accordance with Article 15.2 of the WTO Ag reement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) 
and considering the decision of the TBT Committee of 14 July 1995 concerning the Statement on 
Implementation and Administration as contained in  document G/TBT/1/Rev.8 of 23 May 2002, the 
Government of Albania has the honour to transmit  the following information concerning the measures 
taken by the Republic of Albania to ensu re the implementation of the Agreement. 
2. The basic laws in accordance w ith which the Republic of Albania approved and formally 
undertook the obligations of the Agreement on Techni cal Barriers to Trade, are Law No. 8648, dated 
27 July 2000 "On ratification of the Protocol of  the accession of the Republic of Albania to the 
Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization" and Law No. 8649, dated 27 July 
2000 "On ratification of the Agreements of the Re sults of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade 
Negotiations".   
3. The implementation and administration of the TBT Agreement is also based on the following 
specific legal framework: 
II. STANDARDIZATION 
− Law No. 9870, dated 4 February 2008 "On standardization", which defines the 
existence of a single national body for st andardization in Albania, except in the 
telecommunication field; 
 
− The Council of Ministers Decision No. 242, dated 28 May 1999, "Code of 
preparation, adoption and im plementation of standards" which adopted the Code of 
Good Practice for Preparation, Adoption a nd Application of Standards (Annex 3 of 
the WTO Agreement on TBT); 
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  − The Council of Ministers Decision No. 323, dated 8 July 1999, "On preparation, 
adaptation and implementation of technical regulations and procedures of conformity 
assessment with technical regulations and standards"; 
 
− The Council of Ministers Decision No. 371,  dated 4 August 1999, "On the criteria 
and competences in the field of standardization, certification and accreditation", which defines the practices of the drafting of standards and conduction of voluntary 
and obligatory certification procedures;  
 
− The Council of Ministers Decision No. 382, dated 23 July 2002, "On the exchange of 
information in the field of standardization and technical regulations", which contains 
the obligations of different governmental in stitutions to send all draft laws and draft 
sub-legal acts covering issues related to tec hnical regulations, standards, conformity 
assessment, accreditation, metrology, etc; 
 
− The Prime Minister's Order No. 36, dated 6 May 1999, "On some measures for the 
membership of the Republic of Albania of the WTO", which appoints the General 
Directorate of Standardization as the WTO enquiry point; 
 
− The Prime Minister's Order No. 129, dated 18 September 1999, "On the setting up of 
inter-ministerial working groups for SPS and TBT" which establishes working groups 
that deal with notification requirements of the WTO Agreements on TBT and SPS.  
 
III. ACCREDITATION 
− Law No. 9824, dated 1 November 2007, "On the accreditation of conformity 
assessment bodies in the Republic of Al bania", which defines the rules on the 
establishment and functioning of the accred itation system for conformity assessment 
bodies, specifies the fields in which accreditation shall be performed and the role of 
accreditation in designation procedures of conformity assessment bodies in mandatory areas.  
 
IV. METROLOGY AND CALIBRATION  
− Law No. 9875, dated 14 March 2007, "On metr ology" which defines the rules related 
to the organization, functioning and developm ent of a national system of metrology, 
on the use of the International System of Measurement (SI), for scientific and industrial metrology, legal metr ology and metrological inspection; 
 
− The Council of Ministers Decision No. 431, dated 26 June 2003, "O n the legal units 
of measurement" which sets forth what ar e legal units based on the International 
System of measurement and their symbol; 
 
− The Council of Ministers Decision No. 410, dated 21 June 2006, "On technical 
requirements and conformity assessment procedures of non-automatic weighing 
instruments"; 
 
− The Order of the General Directorate of Metrology and Calibration No. 29, dated 13 
March 2003, "On metrological characte ristics of the measuring devices"; 
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  − The Ordinance of the General Directorate of Metrology and Calibration No. 179, 
dated 18 September 2003, "On setting the bindi ng deadline of periodic verification of 
measuring devices".  
 V. CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT  
− Law No. 9779, dated 16 July 2008 "On general safety, essential requirements and 
conformity assessment of non-food products".   The scope of this law is the regulation 
of the legal framework of products, confor mity assessment and market surveillance in 
Albania, and also in the meantime it en sures the legal basis for the transposition 
through Council of Ministers Decision of the "New Approach" Directives, which 
facilitate the free movement of goods and reduce technical barriers to trade for a 
special group of non-food products.   
 VI. SPECIFIC FIELDS 
− Law No. 9780 dated 17 July 2007, "On cons truction products", which defines the 
terms of use of construction products , the approval of technical conditions, 
conformity assessment and market surveillance; 
 
− Law No. 9323, dated 25 November 2004, "On medicinal products and pharmaceutical 
services", governs the production, importation, exportation, placing on the market of 
medicinal products, as well as control of related activities; 
 
− Law No. 8531, dated 23 September 1999, "On the fertilisers control service", governs 
the marketing of fertilisers in the Republic of Albania; 
 
− Law No. 7941, dated 31 May 1995, "For food" , which defines the terms of use of 
food products, the approval of sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical 
conditions, conformity assessment and market surveillance; 
 
− The Council of Ministers Decision No. 604, dated 17 November 2000, "For the 
labelling of food products", which defines the rules and procedures for preparation 
and approval of the labels for the food products; 
 
− The Council of Ministers Decision No. 609, dated 17 November 2000, "For the 
industrialization and commercialization of na tural mineral waters", which defines the 
requested rules and procedures for the pr oduction and distribution of mineral and 
natural water; 
 
− The Council of Ministers Decision No. 234, dated 11 May 2000, "On the rules and 
criteria of sampling and analysis of fertilisers"; 
 
− The Council of Ministers Decision No. 253, dated 18 May 2000, "On the organization 
of the fertiliser control services"; 
 
− The Council of Minister Decision No. 888, dated 19 December 2007, for the approval 
of the technical regulation "On essential requirements and conformity assessment for toys" which transpose the European directive No. 88/378/EEC on "Toys";  
 
− The Council of Ministers Decision No. 889, dated.19 December 2007, for the 
approval of the technical regulation "O n essential requirements and conformity G/TBT/2/Add.99 
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  assessment of Simple Pressure Vessels" which transposes the European directive no 
87/404/EEC on "Simple pressure vessels"; 
 
− The Council of Ministers Decision No.73, da ted 28 January 2008, for the approval of 
the technical regulation "On essential requirements and conformity assessment of 
Pressure Equipment" which transposes the European directive No 97/23/EC on "Pressure Equipment"; 
 
− The Council of Ministers Decision No.369, dated 27 March 2008, for the approval of 
technical regulation "On essential requirements and conformity assessment of low 
voltage", which transposes the European  directive 2006/95/EC on "Low voltage 
devices". 
 
4. The Enquiry Point foreseen in Article 10 of  the Agreement has been established at the 
General Directorate of Standardization (DPS).  Th e Enquiry point is fully operational and submits 
notifications and provides information as fo reseen in Article 10 of the TBT Agreement. 
5. The contact details of the Enquiry Point are as follows: 
Tel: +(355 42) 22 62 55 
  +(355 42) 22 71 76 
Fax:  +(355 42) 24 71 77 
E-mail:  info@dps.gov.al   nati@dps.gov.al 
 Web: www.dps.gov.al
 
 Contact person: Mrs. Kostanca Dedja 
 
6. DPS assists in the removal of technical barrier s to trade, businesses awareness on the role of 
European standards; quality promotion of products and services; approximation of the practices of our 
quality infrastructures with those of EU counterpa rts; fulfilment of the obligations as the WTO 
Reference Point.  
7. DPS is an observing member of ISO (Internati onal Organization for Standardisation) and an 
affiliated member of CEN (European Committee for Standardisation), IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) and CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical 
Standardisation).  
8. The expected length of time for presentation of comments in writing on draft technical 
regulations, standards or conformity assessment pr ocedures by other WTO Members is 60 days, with 
exception for certain cases (depending on the urge ncy consideration) where this period could be 
extended or reduced. 
9. Work proceeding on draft standards, as well as their references after approval, are announced 
in the official Bulletin of the General Directorate of Standardization.  The texts of the adopted new 
technical regulations, conformity assessment, accredit ation, metrology and all legal and sub-legal acts 
falling under the scope of technical barriers to  trade are published in the Official Gazette.  
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