. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/GEN/96 
30 April 2010 
 (10-2334) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
OECD REPORT ON RECENT EVENTS AND ONGOING WORK RELATED TO TBT 
 
  The following information was provided by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and 
Development (OECD)  at the TBT Committee meeting of 24-25 March 2010 
 
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I. OECD WORKSHOP ON TBT, PARIS, 5-6 OCTOBER 2009 
1. Building on recent and past analytical work , discussions and workshops in the field of 
technical barriers to trade, th e OECD Trade Committee organized a workshop on 5-6 October 2009 in 
Paris on Technical Barriers to Trade: Promoting G ood Practices in Support of Open Markets.  This 
event, which was made possible by special financ ial support by the governments of the Netherlands 
and Switzerland and the Standards Council of Cana da Advisory Committee on Developing Countries, 
followed up a 2005 workshop conducted in Berlin on Sta ndards and Conformity Assessment in Trade: 
Minimising Barriers and Maximising Benefits.  As su ch, this workshop aimed to provide a platform 
for policymakers, experts and practitioners from de veloping and developed countries to share their 
experiences and exchange views on effective TBT policy orientations from an open market 
perspective. 
2. The workshop aimed to strengthen understa nding and encourage dialogue under three 
headings: 
(a) Minimising trade restrictiveness of technical regulations:  Particular focus was given 
to approaches such as harmonisation, SDOC, MRAs and MLAs in the context of conformity assessment, paying attention to empirical evidence of the effectiveness of these approaches and to the role of mark et surveillance and experiences with 
collaboration in this field.  Among other th ings, consideration was given to issues of 
regulatory capacity and infrastructure in developing countries. 
(b) Gauging challenges facing standardisation in  both regulated and non-regulated areas:  
The focus here was on two topics: the role of standards in advancing the climate change policy agenda, and the growth and consequences for international trade of 
private standards addressing environmental concerns. 
(c) Reviewing the effectiveness of current e fforts to extend the use of good regulatory 
practice in the TBT field:  Attention was pa rticularly paid to the role that regional 
trade agreements are increasingly playing in this area, thus following up on the discussion of this topic in Berlin in 2005. 
3. The workshop was attended by some 90 par ticipants from the trade policy community, 
national regulatory agencies and standards organi sations, from both OECD and non-OECD countries.  G/TBT/GEN/96 
Page 2  
 
  International organisations were also represented.   Former chair of the TBT Committee Ami Levin 
delivered the keynote address. 
4. The programme, presentations and a summary report can be accessed at: 
http://www.oecd.org/trade/tbt09
.  Note also the following background papers, available at this 
website: 
(a) International standards and trade – A review of the empirical literature (by G.  M.  
Peter Swann for OECD). 
(b) Trade effects of approaches intended to fac ilitate acceptance of results of conformity 
assessment:  What is the evidence?  (by Mark Vancauteren for OECD).  
(c) Bilateral and regional trade agreements and technical barriers to trade: An African 
perspective (by Nico Meyer, Tamas Fenyes, Martin Breitenbach and Ernst Idsardi for 
OECD). 
5. Workshop proceedings will be available in April 2010. 
II. THE USE OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS IN TECHNICAL REGULATION 
6. OECD is nearing completion of a pilot investiga tion of the use of international standards in 
regulation.  To date, measurement of standards use in national regulation is limited and there are no 
harmonised data formats for meas urement.  Developing an embryonic methodology for taking stock 
of practice and developments therein over time, th is study aims to improve  understanding of how and 
to what extent international standards are used in  regulations.  The methodology and data also provide 
a basis for possible quantification of trade effects of  standards use.  The work covers three sectors - 
electrical household appliances, telephone terminal sets  (mobile and fixed) and natural gas – in five 
OECD countries (Canada, EU, Korea, Mexico, US). 
III. TRANSPARENCY MECHANISMS AS TOOLS FOR ADDRESSING POTENTIAL 
NON-TARIFF BARRIERS 
7. The Working Party of the Trade Committee is  undertaking work to identify domestic and 
international transparency mechanisms which have helped to identify and address potential regulatory 
barriers to trade. 
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