WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/W/312 
8 June 2009 
 
 (09-2734) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
FIFTH TRIENNIAL REVIEW OF THE AGREEMENT  
ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE 
 
Communication from Singapore
 
 
 
The following communication, dated 5 June 2009, is  being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of Singapore . 
 
_______________ 
 
 
I. INTRODUCTION 
1. Article 15.4 of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade provides for a review of 
"the operation and implementation of this Ag reement, including the provisions relating to 
transparency, with a view to recommending an ad justment of the rights and obligations of this 
Agreement where necessary to en sure mutual economic advantage and balance of rights and 
obligations, without prejudice to the provisions of Article 12".  
2. In this regard, Singapore proposes the following key issues for discussion and consideration 
by the Committee: 
(a) Refinement of the TBT notification temp late and monitoring of new technical 
regulations that are aligned with  international standards;    
(b) Government-to-government Mutual Recogn ition Agreements/Arr angements (MRAs); 
and  
(c) Acceptance of results of conformity assessment based on the competence of the 
Conformity Assessment Bodies rather than the origin of the product. 
II. REFINEMENT OF THE TBT NOTIFICA TION TEMPLATE AND MONITORING 
OF NEW TECHNICAL REGULATIONS THAT ARE ALIGNED WITH 
INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS 
3. The current TBT Agreement encourages the use of  international standards where the use of 
mandatory technical regulations is necessary.  Article 2.4 of the TBT Agreement states "where technical regulations are required and relevant inte rnational standards exist or their completion is 
imminent, Members shall use them, or the relevant parts of them, as a basis for their technical 
regulations except when such international standard s or relevant parts would be an ineffective or 
inappropriate means for the fulfillment of the le gitimate objectives pursued , for instance because of 
fundamental climatic or geographical factor s or fundamental technological problems". G/TBT/W/312 
Page 2  
 
  4. In addition, according to Article 2.5, "whenever a technical regul ation is prepared, adopted or 
applied for one of the legitimate objectives explicitly mentioned in paragraph 2, and is in accordance 
with relevant international standards, it sha ll be rebuttably presumed not to create an unnecessary 
obstacle to international trade".   
5. In the light of the importance of the relationshi p between international standards and technical 
regulations, Singapore believes it would be beneficial to monitor the use of international standards in 
the formulation of technical regulations in Me mbers’ economies. As such, Singapore proposes the 
following: 
(a) To include an additional section to the existing TBT notification format 
describing whether the technical regulation is based on any relevant 
international standards that exist . 
In the format of notifications for San itary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, 
Members are required to state if the SPS measure they are undertaking is based on any relevant, existing international standards.   Otherwise, they are required to set out 
the reasons for why the measure deviates from international standards.  Members 
could consider adapting the SPS notification format and include a similar section to 
the existing TBT notification. 
(b) To track the extent to which new, notifi ed technical regulations are aligned with 
international standards. 
The TBT Committee currently monitors statistics on the period for comments on new 
measures. It would be useful for the Committee to include a monitoring mechanism 
on the extent to which the new technical regulations that are notified are based on 
relevant, existing international standards.  This could enable Members to see where 
regulatory convergence is higher and where it is low, help Members understand and possibly mitigate regulatory divergences.  
 
6. Naturally, the existence of international standa rds should not be used as justification for the 
introduction of mandatory technical regulations. In deed, where possible, Members should minimize 
the use of mandatory technical regulations, and s hould first assess the risk that non-fulfilment would 
create and whether the use of mandatory requireme nts is the best way to achieve the desired 
regulatory outcome in accordance with the le gitimate objectives under the TBT Agreement. 
III. GOVERNMENT-TO-GOVERNMENT MUTUAL RECOGNITION AGREEMENTS / 
ARRANGEMENTS (MRAS) 
7. In its successive reviews of the TBT Agreemen t, the Committee has noted certain challenges 
as well as benefits to the successful conclusion of MR As.  In relation to this, Singapore supports New 
Zealand’s call for the Committee to  continue to exchange info rmation on MRAs and regulatory 
cooperation arrangements (G/TBT/W/295; G/TBT/W/306).  
8. For Singapore, the pursuit of MRAs is based on industry interest.  Indeed, MRAs bring 
benefits in the form of market access certainty a nd reduced costs for businesses due to the elimination 
of duplicative testing and/or certification and fast er time to market for these products.  Any delays 
would reduce the marketability of the product, for ex ample due to the shorter lifecycle of consumer 
products in today's context.  At an APEC Semi nar on the APEC Electrical and Electronic Equipment 
MRA held on 26-27 May 2009, the business community emphasised the importance of the APEC 
Electrical and Electronic Equipment MRA in facilitating trade, as many APEC economies base their 
regulations on national standa rds and depend on testing and certification done by their own  G/TBT/W/312 
 Page 3 
 
 
  conformity assessment bodies (CABs).  In fact, the bu siness community’s strong hope is to have "one 
harmonised regulatory regime in APEC with one standard, one testing and one certification accepted 
by all". 
9. Singapore is a party to a number of bilate ral, regional and multila teral MRAs. Undoubtedly, 
having MRAs on a multilateral basis would be most  beneficial and trade-facilitative for all WTO 
members if they are successfully implemented.  However, given the myriad of factors and different 
interests in the membership, identifying MRAs on the multilateral scale would be a complex 
undertaking.  Additionally, regulators in some  economies are reluctant to use multilateral 
arrangements such as ILAC and APLAC as the basi s to support their regulatory decision.  From 
Singapore’s experience on MRAs, we believe that the key success factors are the confidence fostered 
in each other’s regulatory regimes and the commitmen t of regulators in the negotiations.  In this 
respect, MRAs on a smaller scale, such as bilateral or regional MRAs could serve as a confidence-building exercise for WTO members and their domestic regulator y agencies.  The involvement and 
commitment of the regulators at the onset woul d facilitate the successful implementation of MRAs, 
whether bilateral, regional or multilateral.   
10. In addition, Singapore believes that MRAs coul d help facilitate regulatory harmonization, as 
evidenced in the ASEAN MRA on Electrical and Electronic Equipment (ASEAN EE MRA). The MRA was developed in 2000, signed  in 2002 and successfully implemen ted in 2004, and involved all 
ten ASEAN Member States with a combined popu lation of more than 500 million people.  The 
ASEAN EE MRA commits the regulatory authorities of ASEAN to mutually accept test reports and certification by Designated Conformity Assessment Bodies. The MRA eliminates re-testing and re-
certification and provides market certainty and reduc es time and costs to market.  ASEAN has since 
progressed to harmonise the diverse regulatory regimes affecting Electrical and Electronics 
Equipment (EEE) with the signing of ASEAN Harmonised EEE Regulatory Regime Agreement. 
11. Not only did the ASEAN EE MRA set the groundw ork and first step towards regulatory 
harmonisation, it also provided an excellent platform  for the relevant regulators to come together, 
which contributed towards greater confidence-build ing.  From Singapore’s experience, the better 
understanding of different regulatory regimes and closer regulatory cooperation gained through the 
MRA have helped to promote regulatory converg ence and harmonisation in ASEAN.  In fact, 
ASEAN signed the Agreement on ASEAN Harmoni sed EEE Regulatory Regime in December 2005.   
12. Singapore believes in the benefits of MRAs.  Gi ven the potential cost savings and benefits 
that MRAs can bring, it may be worthwhile for th e Committee to review the provisions on MRAs in 
the TBT Agreement, which may not be comprehens ive nor specific enough to address the many issues 
relating to MRA negotiation and implementation, and draw up a template and voluntary guidelines 
similar to the Code of Good Practice.  This c ould help give Members a headstart in their MRA 
negotiations and help to address some of the ch allenges involved.  The development of the MRA 
template and guidelines need not start from scratch  and could develop from existing resources like the 
ASEAN Framework Agreement on MRAs.  In this  regard, Singapore proposes that the Committee 
continue to exchange information in this area.   
IV. ACCEPTANCE OF RESULTS OF CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES 
BASED ON THE COMPETENCE OF THE CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT BODIES RATHER THAN THE ORIGIN OF THE PRODUCT 
13. Singapore recalls New Zealand’s proposal (G/TBT /W/306) to revisit the indicative list of 
approaches to facilitating acceptance of the results of conformity assessment procedures developed at 
the Second Triennial Review.  With respect to the acceptance of results of conformity assessment, 
Singapore would like to underscore the importance of "t he need to take into account the quality of the 
conformity assessment procedures rather than the origin  of the product" as highlighted in the First and G/TBT/W/312 
Page 4  
 
  Fourth Triennial Review.  This is because the basis to recognise and accept another Member’s 
Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) should be focu sed on the competence rather  than the origin of 
the product.  The results of conformity assessme nt by the competent CAB would be the same 
regardless of the origin of the product.  The or igin of the product will not affect the quality of 
conformity assessment, rendering the origin of the pro duct irrelevant with respect to whether it meets 
the technical regulation.   
V. RECOMMENDATIONS 
14. In summary, Singapore proposes the following issues for discussion and consideration of the 
TBT Committee: 
(a) to refine the TBT notification template and initiate a tracking mechanism on the use 
of international standards in the form ulation of new technical regulations;  
(b) to continue to exchange information on MR As and develop a template and voluntary 
guidelines on MRAs; and 
(c) to revisit the list of approaches in fac ilitating acceptance of results of conformity 
assessment procedures and to underscore the importance of the acceptance of 
conformity assessment results being based on the competence of th e CAB rather than 
the origin of the product.   
15. Singapore welcomes Members’ consideration of and response to these proposals in the 
context of the Committee’s discussion of substan tive proposals for the Fifth Triennial Review. 
 
__________