WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/MA/W/48/Add.1 
9 December 2005 
 (05-5855) 
Negotiating Group on Market Access Original:   English 
  
 
MARKET ACCESS FOR NON-AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 
 
Progress Report: Discussions on Forestry NTBs
 
 
Communication from New Zealand and the United States 
 
Addendum  
 
 The following communication, dated 7 December 2005 is being circulated at the request of 
the Delegations of New Zealand and the United States. 
 
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Introduction  
 
1. This report has been prepared to inform the Negotiating Group on Market Access (NGMA) of 
the current state of the discussions on the New Z ealand-US non-tariff barriers (NTBs) forestry 
proposal.  
2. In January this year, New Zealand and th e US submitted a paper to the NAMA negotiating 
group entitled, ‘Non-Tariff Barriers: Building codes and the Wood Products Sector: Some Suggested 
Negotiating Opportunities’  (TN/MA/W/48).  The purpose of the paper was to: a) draw Members’ 
attention to the way standards and conformity assess ment methods are used in national building codes 
and how these can result in NTBs, b) note the cost s these NTBs imposed, and c) suggest possible 
ways of addressing them. 
 
3. These NTBs, which can discriminate against the use of timber or types of timber in building 
construction, were identified as an obstacle to wi der wood usage and a hindrance to trade, thus 
eroding the benefits of tariff elimination.   
4. The paper noted that there were six specific issues or areas, which were the source of many of 
these NTBs.  These were:  
• Technical regulations and standards that creat e an inappropriate incentive for use of limited 
types of products. 
• Differing technical regulations and standards in different jurisdictions create market 
segmentation. 
• Exclusive reliance on nationality or geographi c location of conformity assessment bodies 
rather than technical competence. 
• Duplicative and /or discriminatory testing requirements. 
• Overly restrictive limits on use of wood products in national building codes. 
• Problems with counterfeiting and lack of en forcement of technical   regulations. 
 5. The paper suggested a range of possible op tions for addressing these NTBs.  All options to 
some extent first necessitate that a comparative as sessment be undertaken of Members' standards, test 
methods and conformity assessment syst ems that underlie building codes. TN/MA/W/48/Add.1 
Page 2  
 
 Summary of discussions
 
 
GENEVA MEETINGS  
 6. Since January New Zealand and the US have hosted six meetings (during the January, March, 
April, June, September and Octobe r NAMA weeks) in Geneva to discuss the proposal and consider 
ways of moving work forward.  The meetings ha ve been attended by both developed and developing 
country Members
 1. 
 7. A central point of discussion in these meetings has been about the development of an 
information ‘Matrix’ to be used for the assessment  of Members’ building regulatory systems.  The 
‘Matrix’ was developed by New Zealand and US timber building experts as a tool to facilitate assessment of the standards, test methods and c onformity assessment systems that underlie Members’ 
building codes.  Its purpose is to compare and contrast  the different elements of the standards and test 
methods referenced in building codes in a uni form, structured manner. Presenting technical 
information in this manner allows for sim ilarities and differences in standards/test 
methods/conformity assessment procedures to be easily identified.    8. The ‘Matrix’ was distributed at the April me eting with the request th at Members attempt to 
complete the document in time for a technical level discussion in Geneva in June.  In addition to New 
Zealand and the US, Australia and Norway completed copies of the matrix but, it was clear at the June 
meeting that greater technical expert particip ation was needed to advance further work.   
 E
NGAGEMENT WITH INTERNATIONAL ST RUCTURAL TIMBER EXPERTS  
 9. As a means of strengthening this technical engagement, it was agreed that a presentation 
should be made to international structural timber experts attending the Inte rnational Organisation for 
Standardisation’s (ISO’s) Tec hnical Committee (TC) 165 annual meeting in New Zealand in 
November.  It was felt that the work of TC 165 aligned closely to that of the New Zealand/US 
proposal; i.e., an effort to reduce technical barrier s to trade for structural timber.   While it was 
recognised that ISO was not the only relevant sta ndard setting organisation, it was agreed that the 
meeting offered a useful forum of gathered te chnical experts among whom the proposal could be 
discussed. 
 10. The proposal was well received by TC 165 delegates who recognised the similarity in 
objectives to their own work.  Delegates were ent husiastic and expressed an interest in engaging 
further, but raised questions concerning the in itiative’s efficacy and potential sources of funding. 
 
Next Steps
 
 
PROPOSED WORK PROGRAMME FOR 2006 
 11. Based on the various discussions  in Geneva plus the initial f eedback from TC 165 delegates, 
New Zealand and the US have developed a provisional work programme for 2006.  The purpose of 
this programme would be to ensure  tangible outcomes are achieved prior to the scheduled end of trade 
negotiations in December 2006.  12. The programme envisaged would be built around a two-track approach that would consider 
the six aforementioned issues noted at the start of th is paper (refer para 4 bulle t points) and detailed in 
the original January 2005 proposal.   Two working groups – one technical, the other trade policy focused – would be established to provide the expe rtise for finding necessary solutions.  Membership 
                                                     
 
1 Attending members have included: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the EC, Ecuador, Japan, Korea, 
Malaysia, New Zealand Norway, South Africa, Thailand, Uruguay and the US.   TN/MA/W/48/Add.1 
 Page 3 
 
 
 of these groups could be drawn from relevant tec hnical and trade policy bodies e.g. TC 165 in the 
case of the former and Member WTO delegations fo r the latter.  The two-track approach would be 
necessary because the six issues can be either t echnical or trade policy focused or indeed a 
combination of the two.  It is assumed that because of this overlap there would be a need for close co-
operation between the two working groups on the various issues.   
 
13. In addition to its role in providing solutions for the six issues, the trade policy group would also be tasked with determining how exactly the results of the work programme would be 
incorporated into Members’ schedules at the end of the round.  If Members thought it necessary, the trade policy group could also develop a framework that set out the longer-term process for resolving 
structural timber NTBs on a plurilateral and potentially multilateral basis.   
 14. A clear commitment of both technical and trade policy resources from participating Members 
would be needed to ensure that this work programme was viable.  
E-
DIALOGUE  
 15. New Zealand and the US recognise that there is a need for further detailed discussion around 
the technical / trade policy work programme in orde r to more closely define the scope and objectives 
of the programme.    
16. As a first step towards achieving this, New Z ealand and the US plan to initiate an e-dialogue 
with interested WTO Members and TC 165 delegates over the next one or two months.  New Zealand 
and the US are eager to share the work they have already done in developing and refining the work 
programme in order to rapidly advance this important initiative to remove these unnecessary NTBs. 
 
17. Members that wish to participate are invite d to contact the New Zealand Permanent Mission 
(Diana Reaich, email: diana.reaich@mfat.govt.nz
) with the name of their contact point(s). 
 
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