WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/W/311 
8 June 2009 
 (09-2709) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
FIFTH TRIENNIAL REVIEW OF THE AGREEMENT  
ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE 
 
Communication from Jordan
 
 
 
 The following communication, dated 4 June 2009, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of Jordan . 
 
_______________ 
 
I. TRANSPARENCY 
A. NOTIFICATIONS  
1. Handling of comments 
1. Jordan recalls the Third Triennial Review which resulted in a recommendation that comments 
and responses are disseminated by means of national websites, in addition to the request made at the 
Fourth Triennial Review to the Secretariat to prep are a list of these websites, based on the information 
provided by Members. 
2. With a view to facilitating the implementation of transparency procedures under the TBT 
Agreement and aiming at establishing administrative mechanisms between notifying authorities where 
all WTO Members have access to comments on notif ications and responses on the comments, Jordan 
would like to suggest an additional procedure wher eby the WTO Secretariat provide a platform for 
Notifying Authorities of Members to post the comment s received from other WTO Members and their 
responses to them. 
2. Length of time allowed for comments 
3. Jordan recognizes that the Notifying Authorities of Members consider the comment period 
from the date of notification, while other Members may consider it from the date of circulation, which 
might result in ambiguity in the deadline provided for comments. 
4. Jordan would like to reiterate the recommenda tions adopted by the Committee for Technical 
Barriers to Trade in the Third Triennial Review, and would further suggest that Members allow a 
recommended period of 75 days for comments starting fro m the date of circulation instead of the date 
of notification. G/TBT/W/311 
Page 2  
 
  B. D
ISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION  
1. Texts of Notified Technical Regulations and Conformity Assessment Procedures 
5. Jordan reiterates the recommendation adopted by the Committee on Technical Barriers to 
Trade at the Fourth Triennial Review concerning th e notification of the adopted final text as well as 
the provision of information on where the final text can be obtained. 
6. Jordan would like to further clarify the above mentioned recommendation, by suggesting that 
the notification of the availability of the final text is made directly upon the adoption of the technical 
regulation or conformity assessment procedure, with emphasis on the actual date of entry into force. 
2. Provision of translations  
7. Jordan recalls the decision taken by the Comm ittee on Technical Barriers to Trade in 2008 to 
inform Members of the availability of unofficial tran slations, which the Secrtariat would circulate to 
all Members.  
8. In an effort to examine ways of improving co mprehension of notified documents in unofficial 
languages, and taking into consideration the sp ecial needs of developing countries faced with 
language barriers due to their limited resources, Jordan would like to suggest that the notifying 
Member may review the translation and publish it as an official one, and inform the Secretariat on the 
availability and accessibility of the official transla tion of the notified document on the internet or by 
any other means. 
II. GOOD REGULATORY PRACTICE 
9. With view to deepening the understanding of the Good Regulatory Practice used by 
developed country Members, and continuing the ex change of experiences between Members in order 
to eliminate unnecessary barriers arising from tec hnical regulations, Jordan proposes that the 
Committee prepare and publish Guidelines for Good Re gulatory Practice, to address the principles of 
public consultation, use of tools for regulatory im pact assessment, performance based regulations, use 
of standards in technical regulations, etc. 
10. To support the work of the Committee, Jordan suggests that the Secretariat consolidate and 
update a list of relevant mechanisms and methodol ogies related to GRP used by Members, for the 
exchange of information on Members’ experiences in this regard. 
11. To make better use of the Technical Assistan ce provisions in the TBT Agreement, special 
focus should be on Good Regulatory Practice so as to arrive at a decision to include GRP in the WTO 
Technical Assistance and Training Plan, in the fo rm of specialized workshops or infrastructure 
development.  
III. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE 
12. With a view to prioritizing technical assist ance activities, and seeking ways to encourage 
Members to request technical assistance and to specify technical assistance needs, Jordan proposes 
that the Secretariat circulate the Format for the Voluntary Notification of Specific Technical 
Assistance Needs or Responses to Developing Countr ies and LDC’s at the end of every year for 
submission of specific Technical Assistance needs.  G/TBT/W/311 
 Page 3 
 
 
  13. Jordan suggests that the Secretariat provide  feedback to countries requesting technical 
assistance on the status of their requests (approval, postponement, denial), in addition to the provider 
of the technical assistance (in case it is not the WTO). 
__________