. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/MA/W/11/Add.4 
27 April 2006 
 
 (06-1981) 
Negotiating Group on Market Access Original:   English 
  
 
MARKET ACCESS FOR NON-AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS  
 
Negotiating Proposal on Non Tariff Barriers 
 
in the Automotive sector  
 
Communication from the European Communities 
 
Addendum  
  The following communication, dated 20 April 2006,  is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of the European Communities. 
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I. BACKGROUND 
In line with paragraph 16 of the Work Pr ogramme adopted at the WTO Ministerial 
Conference in Doha in November 2001, and paragra ph 22 of the Ministerial Declaration adopted at 
the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong on  18 December 2005, the European Communities 
(hereafter “the EC”) hereby submit its specific nego tiating proposal on Non-tariff barriers to Trade in 
the automotive sector.   The EC proposal, outlined in detail below, r esponds to the request by the Global Automotive 
Industry Dialogue (GAID) to the WTO Membership  as a whole to seek solutions to NTBs of 
particular interest to the automotive sector. GAI D consists of national automotive associations from 
seven WTO Members – EC, US Korea, Japan, India, Brazil and Canada. The GAID request and its proposals have also been subject to discussions among government representatives in the informal 
NTB group on automotives, hosted by the US.  
 
II. MAIN AUTO BARRIERS FOR THE NTB NEGOTIATIONS IN NAMA 
This specific negotiating proposal is made in th e context of increasing global harmonization of 
technical motor vehicle regulation under the aegis of two United Nations agreements:   
 
• the 1958 Agreement concerning the adoption of uniform technical prescriptions for wheeled 
vehicles, equipment and parts which can be fitte d and/or be used on wheeled vehicles and the 
conditions for reciprocal recognition of approva ls granted on the basis of these prescriptions 
(‘the 1958 Agreement’); and  
• the 1998 Agreement concerning the establishment of global technical regulations for wheeled 
vehicles, equipment and parts which can be fitted and/or be used on wheeled vehicles  (‘the 
1998 Agreement’).  
 
Both of these Agreements are administered by the relevant Committees set up by the Agreement 
within the Framework of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).   
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  The trend towards increasing harmonization, stim ulated by the important work by WP29 and 
reflected in the two Agreements mentioned above, is widely acknowledged to benefit manufacturers 
and vehicle users by preventing needless duplicative testing or variations in design and manufacture where similar goals, particularly of vehicle and user safety, are at stake.  
Nearly 50 countries have become signatories to the 1958 Agreement and over 20 have signed the 
1998 Agreement. Other countries, despite not having become signatories to either Agreement at this 
stage, frequently find it useful to refer to the subs tance of the UN Regulations in drafting their own 
motor vehicle legislation and to base their own le gislation in significant part on UN Regulations.   
 
In some of these cases, however, this legislati on is not identical in all respects to the UN 
Regulations; rather, unique testing requirements are added or other modifications to the UN 
Regulations are made. The practical effect of such ‘partial’ harmonization is still to require 
duplicative testing or variations in design and manufacture. Vehicles sold in those countries, 
therefore, do not benefit from the harmonization that  might be hoped for and will therefore carry a 
cost penalty that could have been avoided. Clear and consistent technical ha rmonization, by contrast, 
would allow consumers to benefit from a more cost-e fficient distribution of vehicles. In addition, it 
would allow administrations to better check complia nce with safety and environmental standards.  
 
III. PROPOSED DISCIPLINES ON AUTO STANDARDS AND TECHNICAL 
REGULATIONS 
The EC proposes to reduce or as appropriate eliminate non tariff barriers for the automotive 
sector following the vertical approach recognized in paragraph 22 of the Hong Kong Ministerial Decision.   
The proposed EU disciplines build on, but also fu rther develop, add precision to and facilitate, 
the implementation of the WTO Agreement on Techni cal Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) for the 
automotive sector.  
 The specific disciplines under such a ve rtical NTB initiative for automotives are: 
 
• Members shall recognize the Administrative Committee under the 1958 Agreement and the 
Executive Committee under the 1998 Agreement as the international standard setting bodies 
for automotives. 
• UN/ECE Regulations under the 1958 Agreement and Global Technical Regulations under the 
1998 Agreement shall be considered relevant  international standards for the purposes of 
Article 2.4 of the TBT Agreement. 
  
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