. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/FRA/45 
15 September 2005 
 (05-4032) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   French 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6. 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   FRANCE
 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):    
2. Agency responsible:   Ministère de l'emploi, de la cohésion sociale et du logement  
(Ministry of Employment, Social Cohesion and Housing) 
Direction générale de l'urbanisme, de  l'habitat et de la construction (Directorate-General of 
Town Planning, Housing and Construction) 
Bureau de la qualité technique et de la prévention 
Arche de la Défense paroi sud 92055 LA DEFENSE CEDEX 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site 
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be  indicated if different from above:    
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [  X ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:    
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):   Protection of buildings 
against termites and other xylophagous insects. 
5. Title, number of pages and lang uage(s) of the notified document:   DECRET N° du // 
2005 relatif à la protection des bâtiments c ontre les termites et autres insects xylophagous  
et modifiant le code de la c onstruction et de l'habitation.  (DECREE No. of // 2005 on the 
protection of buildings against termites a nd other xylophagous insects and amending the 
Building and the Housing Code) (3 pages). 
6. Description of content:   The objective of this Decree is to establish construction and 
planning regulations applicable to buildings with regard to their xylophagous insect and 
termite resistance. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable:    
 Xylophagous insects, in particular term ites, cause damage to constructions by 
weakening the wooden structures, whic h can lead to building collapse. 
 Xylophagous insects are to be found in all French communes  (districts) and around 
60 départements  (departments) in mainland France and the French overseas territories are 
affected by termite infestation. G/TBT/N/FRA/45 
Page 2  
 
  Law No. 99-471 of 8 June 1999, on the protection of property purchasers and 
owners against termites and other xylophagous  insects, established the general framework 
for the prevention and control of these insects. 
 In order to prevent new buildings from becoming infested by xylophagous insects 
and termites, Law No. 99-471 supplemented the building regulations with the insertion of 
Article L. 112-17 into the Building and Housing Code. 
 The objective of this implementation Decree for Article L. 112-17 is to establish 
building and planning regulations applicable to  buildings with regard to their xylophagous 
insect and termite resistance.  It determines th e technical provisions that developers will 
henceforth have to take into consideration during building construction with regard to : 
 - The strengthening of buildings resistance to xylophagous insects; 
 - the implementation of building protection against termites in areas infested by 
these insects.  
8. Relevant documents:    
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    1 December 2005 
1 December 2007 
10. Final date for comments:    
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [  X ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available, of the other body:  
Point national d'informati on (National enquiry point) 
CINORTECH 
AFNOR 
11 avenue Francis de Pressensé 
93571 SAINT-DENIS-LA PLAINE cedex