WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/GEN/15 
14 March 2005 
 (05-1049) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  
  
 
TBT WORKSHOP ON SUPPLIER'S DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY  
 
Geneva, 21 March 2005
 
 
Programme  
 
 
 At the Third Triennial Review of the TBT Agreement, concluded in November 2003, the 
Committee agreed to a work programme on c onformity assessment to improve Members' 
implementation of Articles 5-9 of the TBT Agreem ent and, in particular, to promote a better 
understanding of conformity assessment systems (G/T BT/13, paragraph 41).  Considering the use of 
SDoC by Members as one of the approaches to facilitating acceptance of conformity assessment, it 
also agreed, as part of this work programme, to "exchange information and experiences and to hold a 
workshop on SDoC covering issues such as:  the re gulatory authorities, sectors and suppliers which 
use SDoC;  the surveillance mechan ism, liability law and penalties used to ensure that products 
comply with requirements;  the incentives for su ppliers to comply with requirements; and the 
legislation that underpins the relations hip between buyers and sellers".   
 
 Accordingly, the Committee held a detailed exchange of information based on Members' 
experiences of the use of SDoC in 2004 (G/TBT/M/ 33/Add.1, paras. 2-60) and agreed to hold the 
workshop in 2005.     The SDoC workshop will be held on 21 March 2005 , back-to-back with the next regular 
meeting of the TBT Committee on 22- 23 March 2005.  In addition to  a general session, the workshop 
will comprise of two main sessions focussing on th e government's and manufacturer's perspectives, 
respectively.  In these sessions, speakers from individual Members will present case studies based on 
their experiences.  The programme is attached.
1   
  Registration will begin at 08:30.
2 
 
 
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1 Participation of one capital-based expert from developing country Members has been funded by the 
WTO Global Trust Fund.  93 invited developing country Me mbers have confirmed attendance in response to the 
invitations issued in December 2004.  For any inquiries that f unded participants may have regarding logistics, 
they are invited to contact Mr. Felip e Vargas-Maza (+41 22 7 395018, logistic.unit@wto. org).  For any further 
information regarding the substance of this workshop, please contact Mr. Erik Wijkström (+41 22 739 5729, 
erik.wijkstrom@wto.org).  
2 It is recalled that all  Members have been asked to communicate the names of their capital-based 
participants (other than funded participants from developing country Members whose names have already been 
communicated to the WTO), by Fax or e-mail.  These names should be sent to Mrs. Jane Golding (Jane.Golding@wto.org) with a copy to:  BAI@wto.org. 
 G/TBT/GEN/15 
Page 2  
 
 TBT WORKSHOP ON SUPPLIER'S DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY 
 
21
 MARCH 2005 
 
Chairperson:  Mr. Sudhakar Dalela  
 
Morning Session  
 
08:30 Registration 
GENERAL 
A. Overview of the TBT Committee's work on SDoC. 
 • WTO Secretariat (Mrs. Ludivine Tamiotti) 
B. International standards, guides and recommendations 10:00 – 
10:30 
 • ISO (Mr. Alan Bryden):  The new ISO/IEC Standard on Supplier's 
Declaration of Conformity  (ISO/IEC 17050). 
MEMBERS' EXPERIENCES 
A. T HE GOVERNMENT 'S PERSPECTIVE  10:30 – 
12:30 
 These presentations will address, inter alia , the following questions:  (i) what 
reasons and factors (such as risk) should be taken into account when deciding to 
apply SDoC in a particular sector (and not in others);  (ii) whether SDoC should 
be used alone or in combination with  third party assessment;  (iii) how, in 
applying SDoC, international standards ar e taken into account;  (iv) what basic 
institutional and legislative infrastructure needs to be in place to use SDoC (for 
example in respect of product liability law and consumer redress);  (v) how 
compliance is ensured and what experien ce exists with respect to surveillance 
and enforcement (incentives that could be used to encourage compliance and 
experiences with penalties for non-complian ce);  (vi) how the use of SDoC in 
developed country Members can facil itate imports from developing country 
Members. 
  • New Zealand (Mr. Peter Morfee):  Experience in regard to electrical 
equipment. 
  • Chinese Taipei (Mr. Bing-Yuan Liou):  Market surveillance mechanism for 
industrial products. 
  • Brazil ( Mr. Alfredo Lobo):  The case of disposable lighters. 
  • Canada  (Mr. Claude Beaudoin):  Experience in regard to telecom equipment. 
  • Korea  (Mr. Woo Jin Jung):  Implementation of SDoC in Korea's automobile 
sector. 
  • European Communities :  (Mr. Georg Hilpert):  Experience with respect to 
the electrical and mechanical sectors. 
 
12:30 – 
13:00   Discussion    G/TBT/GEN/15 
 Page 3 
 
 
 Afternoon Session  
 
B. T HE MANUFACTURER 'S / SUPPLIER 'S PERSPECTIVE  15:00 – 
16:00  The presentations will address, inter alia : (i) the reasons why manufacturers may 
prefer SDoC;  (ii) the main problems encountered by the manufacturer in 
implementing SDoC;  (iii) any specific problems relevant to SMEs. 
  • European Communities  (Mr. Per Döfnäs, LM Ericsson AB):  Transition to 
SDoC in the IT/telecom sector in the European Communities. 
  • United States (Mr. David Ling,  Hewlett-Packard):  Supplier's Declaration of 
Conformity for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) 
Regulations. 
  • Mexico  (Mr. Rafael Nava Uribe):  The view of the conformity assessment 
bodies in developing countries. 
    
16:00- 
16:30   Discussion  
 
CONCLUSION 16:30 – 
17:00  Identification of key horizontal issues with particular emphasis on the developing 
country perspective. 
 
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