. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/2/Add.89 
19 May 2006 
 (06-2444) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE AGREEMENT ON 
TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE 
 
Communication from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
 
 
Addendum  
 
  The following communication, dated 13 May 200 6, has been received from the delegation of 
Saudi Arabia
 
_______________ 
 
 1. Pursuant to Article 15.2 of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, the Kingdom of 
Saudi Arabia submits to the TBT Committee measur es taken in respect of the implementation and 
administration of the Agreement.  
I. TRANSPARENCY 
A. GOVERNMENT
 AUTHORITY 
2. Saudi Arabian Standards Organization (SASO) has the overall responsibility for ensuring that 
obligations under the Agreement are fulfilled. 
 SASO is the sole body for standardization in Sa udi Arabia.  Its Board of Directors consists of 
all concerned Ministries, Government Agencies and th e Private Sectors.  SASO is entrusted with all 
different activities of standardization in Saudi Arabia. 
 B. ENQUIRY
 POINT  AND  NOTIFICATION  POINT 
3. Saudi Arabian Standards Organization (SASO) is the enquiry point foreseen in Article 10.1 of 
the TBT Agreement.  The address, tele phone and fax numbers are as follows: 
 TBT Enquiry Point 
 Saudi Arabian Standards Organization (SASO) 
 P.O. Box: 3437  Riyadh 11471  Saudi Arabia  
 Tel:   +966 1 4520000 Ext. 1389 – 1382 - 1383 
 Direct:  +966  1 4520133  Fax:  +966 1 4520135    (+966) 1 4520193  E-mail:  ENQUIRYPOINT@SASO.ORG.SA 
 Website: www.saso.org.sa 
  This Enquiry Point is fully operational G/TBT/2/Add.89 
Page 2  
 
  4. The Ministry of Comerce and Industry is in -charge of making notifications to the WTO. 
C. PUBLICATIONS 
5. Draft technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures are available on 
SASO Website: http://www.saso.org.sa 
6. Texts of technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures after approval 
by SASO Board of Directors are available in the Information Center of the Saudi Arabian Standards 
Organization. 
 
II. DESCRIPTION OF SAUDI REGIME 
7. Saudi Arabia had established and was implemen ting the TBT regime.  This had been done by 
issuing and implementing the SASO Technical Directiv e (having the force of law) on  18 July  2000, 
and amended on 19 July 2005.  The major feature of the system were: 
 
(a) All SASO technical regulations, standard s and conformity assessment procedures 
were intended to be fully comp atible with the TBT Agreement; 
(b) A period of at least sixty (60) days is  allowed to provide comments on technical 
regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures; 
(c) Reasonable period of time is given between the final publication and entry into force 
of a technical regulations; 
(d) SASO accepts and applies "WTO TBT Code  of Good Practice for the Preparation, 
Adoption and Application of Standards"; 
(e) SASO Technical Directive provided for national treatment and non-discrimination 
with respect to products in the context of  development and application of technical 
regulations and conformity assessment procedures; 
(f) The Technical Directive required SASO to c onsider relevant inte rnational standards 
as a basis for preparing Saudi technical  regulations and standards unless these 
international standards or their parts are ineffective or an inappropriate means for 
achieving the intended, legitimate objectives.  This, for example, could be due to their 
inconsistency with Islamic law or due to  climate, geographical factors or basic 
technical problems.  
 
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