WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/GEN/67/Rev.1 
17 March 2008 
 (08-1185) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  
  
 
WORKSHOP ON GOOD REGULATORY PRACTICE 
 
18-19 MARCH 2008  
 
Programme
 
 
Revision  
 
 
 
 At the Fourth Triennial Review of the TBT Agreement, concluded in November 2006, the 
TBT Committee agreed to share experiences on a number of aspects relevant to good regulatory practice with a view to deepening understanding of the contribution good regulatory practice can make 
to the implementation of the TBT Agreement.  At the March 2007 meeting, Members decided to hold a 
workshop in March 2008 back-to-back with  the TBT Committee's regular meeting.
1    
 
 The attached programme has been prepared in light of suggestions received from Members. The 
event will be held in the form of four pane l sessions. The Annex provides brief biographies on the 
speakers and moderators.    
 
_______________ 
 
                                                     
 
1 G/TBT/19, paras 19 and 20;  G/TBT/M/41, para. 88. G/TBT/GEN/67/Rev.1 
Page 2  
 
  18 MARCH 2008 
 
 Registration (08h30 – 10h00) 
 1. General Approaches (10h00 – 13h00) 
Good regulatory practice can help avoid unnecess ary obstacles to trade in the preparation, 
adoption and application of technical regul ations, standards and conformity assessment 
procedures.  This session is intended to  exemplify different general approaches
 taken by 
Members to good regulatory practice when implementing the disciplines of the TBT Agreement.    
Panel Moderator:  Mr. Jeff Weiss 
(i) Brazil's
 new National Guide on Good Prac tice (Mr. Alfredo Carlos Orphão 
Lobo) 
(ii) Canada's  new standards guide for regulat ors developed by the Standards 
Council of Canada (Mr. David Shortall) 
(iii) Chile's  experience with Good Regulatory Practice (Mrs. Ana María Vallina) 
(iv) European Communities : The European Commission’s Better Regulation 
Strategy  (Mr. Cavan O'Connor Close) 
(v) Japan's  experience and perspectives on good regulatory practice  
(Mr. Masafumi Sugano) 
(vi) Korea's  Approach to Good Regulatory Practice (Dr. Gyung Ihm Rhyu) 
(vii) Malaysia's  experience in the preparation for the implementation of Good 
Regulatory Practice (Mr. Rajinder Raj)  
Discussion 
2. Internal Transparency and Consultative Mechanisms (15h00 – 18h00) 
Members have attributed importance to ope nness, transparency a nd accountability in the 
regulatory processes.  This session will consider  examples, based on Members' experiences, of 
domestic administrative mechanisms establishe d to facilitate coopera tion and coordination 
between competent authorities and co-ordination with other stakeholders.  This could, for 
instance, include means by which local governme nts as well as non-governmental parties are 
included in domestic consultation activities. 
 
Panel Moderator:  Peter Bischoff-Everding 
(i) Colombia : Experience with domestic mechanisms for transparency and 
consultation  (Mr. Ramón Madriñan) 
(ii) South Africa :  South Africa's Technical Regulatory Framework - A focus on 
transparency and consultation  
(iii) United States :  The importance of transparency in regulatory reform (Mr. Jeff 
Weiss) 
Discussion  G/TBT/GEN/67/Rev.1 
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  19 MARCH 2008 
 
3. Regulatory Impact Assessment (10h00 – 13h00) 
RIAs have been identified as one tool to assist  regulatory decision-making.  This session will 
address how RIAs can assist regulatory decision-ma king, including with respect to factors used 
by regulators to determine whether there is a n eed to regulate in a given situation or whether 
other instruments are better suited to fulfil th e legitimate objective sought.  Members may also 
wish to discuss the assessment of costs and bene fits of proposed re gulations, including the 
likely impact on consumers, trade and industry. 
 
Panel Moderator:  Mr. Rajinder Raj 
 
(i) Overview :  Benefits and Application (Mr. Scott Jacobs) 
(ii) Canada 's experience with RIAs (Ms. Karen M. Zarrouki) 
(iii) Chinese Taipei :  The experience of Chinese Taipei in promoting Regulatory 
Impact Assessment (Ms. Jennifer Fang-Yu Huang) 
(iv) European Communities : Impact Assessment and Reducing Administrative 
Burdens in the EU (Mr. Cavan O'Connor Close) 
(v) United States : How to Determine If/When to Regulate  (Mr. Neil Eisner) 
(vi) OECD : Strengthening Trade-Related Polic y Coherence In Assessment Tools: 
The Experience Of Emerging Economies (Mrs. Barbara Fliess) 
Discussion 
 
4. Regulatory Cooperation Initiatives (15h00 – 18h00) 
Regulatory cooperation between regulators from different Members, whether informal or 
formal in nature, can help achieve a better unde rstanding of different regulatory systems.  This 
session will consider how regulatory cooperation has promoted harmonization, mutual 
recognition and equivalency, thereby contribut ing to the avoidance of unnecessary regulatory 
differences and to the reduction of unnecessary barriers to trade. 
 
Panel Moderator:  Mrs. Ana María Vallina 
(i) European Communities and the United States :  The US-EU regulatory 
cooperation initiative (joint presentation by Mr. Jim Sanford and Mr. Simon 
Holland) 
(ii) Israel's  Experience in Cooperation betwee n Regulators (Mr. Grisha Deitsch) 
(iii) India  and Regulatory Cooperation (Mr. Chandrasekher) 
 Discussion 
_______________ G/TBT/GEN/67/Rev.1 
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ANNEX 
 
Biographical Information on Speakers and Moderators
 
 
 
Session 1: General Approaches 
 
Alfredo Carlos Orphão Lobo (Brazil)  
Mr. Lobo is currently Quality Director of INMETRO,  the Brazilian National Institute of Metrology, 
Standardization, and Industrial Quality.  He is al so the executive secretary of the Brazilian Committee 
of Conformity Assessment (CBAC), of the Brazilian  Committee of Standardization (CBN) and of the 
Brazilian Committee of Regulation (CBR).  A Mechanical Engineer, Mr. Lobo is specialized in 
Petroleum Equipment Engineering.  He has worked  for Petrobras for 28 years and been involved in 
different activities such as construction and assemb ly, quality management and human resources 
management.  Between 1996 and 1999, Mr. Lobo set up and coordinated a team that established the 
Brazilian Program for Quality and Productivity (PBQP).    
David Shortall (Canada)
 
David Shortall is a consultant in the area of standard s, conformity assessment and trade. He is presently 
an advisor to Canada's delegation to the WTO TBT Committee and regularly attends  TBT Committee 
meetings.  From 1996 to 1999, Mr Shortall served as  Canada's delegate to the TBT Committee and to 
the APEC Sub-Committee on Standa rds and Conformance. From 1999 to 2004, Mr. Shortall managed 
the policy group at the Standards Council of Cana da which provides advice on standardization and 
issues related to regulation and trade.    
Ana María Vallina (Chile)
 
Mrs. Vallina has been Head of the Foreign Trade Depa rtment in the Ministry of Economy of Chile since 
August 2003.  In the Ministry of Economy, she is responsible for the direction, coordination and 
implementation of international commercial policy. As an International Advisor to the Minister and 
Vice-Minister, Mrs. Vallina has contributed several  bilateral trade negotiations including with the 
United States, European Communities, South Korea, Jap an, China and India.  She leads the negotiations 
on TBT matters.  Moreover, Mrs. Vallina is activel y involved in the Public-Private Council for Export 
Development and is a Member of Chile's Board of the Standardization Nationa l Institute. In 2004, she 
was Chairperson of the APEC Sub-Committee of Sta ndard and Conformance.  Mrs. Vallina has held 
teaching positions at Universities for over 20 years and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University 
of Miami. 
 
Cavan O'Connor Close (European Communities)  
 Mr. O'Connor joined the UK's Government Econom ic Service in 2001. Between 2001 and 2005 he 
worked as an economist in the Department of Trade and Industry (UK). He has been on secondment to 
European Commission, Directorate-General for En terprise and Industry, as a Senior Economist and 
Adviser on Better Regulation since 2005.   G/TBT/GEN/67/Rev.1 
 Page 5 
 
 
  Masafumi Sugano (Japan)  
 Mr. Sugano is the Deputy Direct or for the International Affairs Office, Technical Regulations, 
Standards and Conformity Assessment Policy Unit of  the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of 
Japan.  
 
Rhyu, Gyung Ihm (Korea)
 
 
Dr. Rhyu is Director of the TBT Division of the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards 
(KATS).  She has played a prominent role in the area of standardization and conformity assessment.  She has a PhD in biochemistry from Purdue University from 1984.   
 
 Rajinder Raj Sud (Malaysia)
 
 Mr. Raj has worked most of his career in the ar ea of standards and conformity assessment.  He is 
currently the Director of Standards at the Department  of Standards of Malaysia.  This Department is 
responsible for national standards policy development and implementa tion.  From 1998 to 2006, Mr Raj 
was a senior manager at SIRIM Berhad, where he  was responsible for managing the National WTO 
TBT Enquiry Point, the National Committee secretariat.   During this time he also served as Malaysia's 
representative at the WTO TBT Committee. From 1994 until 1997, Mr. Raj was responsible for the 
quality assurance section in the Standards and Quality Division of SIRIM Berhad. 
 
Session 2: Internal Transparency and Consultative Mechanisms 
 
Peter Bischoff-Everding (European Communities)
 
 
Mr. Bischoff-Everding works for the Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General of the European 
Commission in the department responsible for scree ning draft technical regulations notified under the 
TBT Agreement.  Mr. Bischof-Everding is a traine d lawyer, and, before joining the Commission in 
2004, he worked for the German Ministry of Economi cs and before that as an attorney in a private law 
firm.  
Ramon Eduardo Madriñan (Colombia)
 
 Mr. Madriñan has been Director for Economic Regulation at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of the Republic of Colombia since 2004.  Pr ior to that he practiced law in various private 
practices in Colombia and Canada.  He is currently  an Associate Professor specializing in the area of 
technical barriers to trade at the Javeriana Law School  in Bogotá.  Mr Madriñan has published articles 
on TBT issues from a developing country perspective.   Jeff Weiss (United States)
 
 
Mr. Weiss has been the Senior Director for Technical  Barriers to Trade at the Office of the U.S. Trade 
Representative since June 2007.  He has devoted par ticular attention to specific trade concerns and 
systemic issues before the WTO Committee on Techni cal Barriers to Trade, TBT-related proposals in 
the NAMA negotiations, the TBT chapters of free tr ade agreements and WTO accession working party 
reports, and trade–related aspects of standards devel opment.  Prior to assuming this position, he served 
as, inter alia, Assistant General Counsel at USTR and Assistant Legal Advisor at the Mission of the 
United States to the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland.  He is a graduate of  Harvard Law School and 
Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.  G/TBT/GEN/67/Rev.1 
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  Session 3: Regulatory Impact Assessment 
 
Scott H. Jacobs
 
 Mr. Jacobs is an international expert in regulator y reform and the Managing Director of Jacobs and 
Associates. Mr. Jacobs is currently the lead lecturer  for the RIA Training Courses offered jointly by the 
College of Europe in Bruges and Jacobs and Associates. Mr. Jacobs advises governments and 
international institutions on regulatory reform strate gies.  He has also worked for the OECD where he 
developed and directed the Program on Regulatory Reform from 1995 to 2001. As well, at the OECD, 
Mr. Jacobs wrote the first international standard on regulatory quality and led multi-disciplinary teams 
to review national regulatory prac tices, producing detailed studies of regulatory reform. His work in 
regulatory reform began in 1985 in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, in the Office of the 
President. He has written several books and articles on the subject. He received his graduate degree 
from Princeton University in the United States.    
Karen M. Zarrouki (Canada)
 
 Ms. Zarrouki is a Senior Policy Analyst currently ac ting in the position of Director in the Regulatory 
Affairs Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada – a central agency of the Canadian Federal Government.  With principal responsibility for regul ations relating to agriculture, Ms. Zarrouki provides 
advice and guidance to Federal Government organi zations on preparing Regulatory Impact Analysis 
Statements for proposed regulations.  This involv es implementing the recent reforms in regulating, as 
introduced in 2007 through the Cabinet Directive on St reamlining Regulation.  Over her 17-year career 
in the Canadian government, Ms. Zarrouki has held  various positions in which she provided advice on 
issues relating to regulation, agriculture and agri-food,  and broader issues relating to rural and remote 
communities. 
 
Jennifer Fang-Yu HUANG (Chinese Taipei)
 
 Ms. Huang is Chief of Administration Section and Chief of External Liaison and Policy Promotion, 
Center for Economic Deregulati on and Innovation, Council for Ec onomic Planning and Development 
(CEPD). Ms. Huang has also worked in the Ur ban Development Departme nt of Taipei City 
Government and National Bureau of Standards (Min istry of Economic Affairs) and has carried out 
research work at the Institute of Information Scien ce of Academia Sinica, Chinese Taipei. Her work in 
CEPD covers international affair s regarding APEC, OECD, and the WTO, as well as other international 
think tanks. Ms. Huang was educated at the School of  Architecture, University of Maryland, in the 
United States and has a one-year doctoral study at Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public 
Policy from New Jersey, USA.  
 Neil Eisner (United States)
 
 Mr. Eisner is currently the Assistant General Co unsel for Regulation and Enforcement at the U.S. 
Department of Transportation.  Prior to this, Mr. Eisner held positions as Assistant Chief Counsel for 
Regulation and Enforcement and Deputy Assistant Chie f Counsel for Litigation in the Federal Aviation 
Administration.  He was previously Chair of the ABA’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory 
Practice.  In addition, Mr. Eisner is an adjunct pr ofessor at American University’s Washington College 
of Law.  Mr. Eisner received his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and an A.B. (with honors in Political Science) from Syracuse University. 
  G/TBT/GEN/67/Rev.1 
 Page 7 
 
 
  Barbara Fliess (OECD)  
 Mrs. Fliess works for the Trade Liberalization and Regulatory Issues Division of the OECD’s Trade & 
Agriculture Directorate.  She is responsible for th e programme of work on non-tariff measures affecting 
trade in goods and analysis of TBT issues is part of this work.  As well, Mrs. Fliess liaises with other 
parts of OECD dealing with regulatory reform an d good regulatory practices. Prior to joining the 
OECD, in 1995, Mrs. Fliess worked in the private sector and for a research institute linked to the 
German Government.  
Session 4:  Regulatory Cooperation Initiatives  
 
Jim Sanford (United States)
 
 Mr. Sanford has been Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe at the Office of the U.S. 
Trade Representative since June 2002. His respon sibilities primarily involve the development and 
implementation of U.S. trade policy with the European  Union (EU).  Mr. Sanford has devoted particular 
attention to addressing a broad range of European regulatory issues and deve loping a number of key 
policy approaches for advancing U.S.-EU regulatory c ooperation.  Prior to joining USTR in 1998 as the 
Director for European Affairs, he served as an in ternational economist with the U.S. Department of 
Commerce and as an economic analyst at the U.S.  Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. 
 
Simon Holland (European Commission) 
 
 Mr. Holland works for the Enterprise and Industry Di rectorate-General of the European Commission, 
where he is responsible for regul atory cooperation, with particular  responsibilities for Canada. Since 
joining the European Commission in 1989, he has worked in communication technology 
standardisation, telematics research and trans-Eur opean communications networks.  Before taking up 
his current post he was responsible for strategic pla nning in the Directorate-General.  Prior to joining 
the European Commission, Mr Holland worked in  the IT industry.   Grisha Deitch (Israel) 
 
 
Mr. Deitch has served as Israel’s Commissioner of Sta ndardization since 1994 and is responsible for 
laboratory approval and for market surveillance of  c onformity to standards.  He has worked with the 
Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor for 35 year s, initially in the National Physical Laboratory of 
Israel, as head of the Physical Standards Division.  Previously he served for one year as Controller of 
Weights and Measures where he was responsible for all aspects of legal metrology in the country.  He is 
also Technical Director of the National Physical Laboratory of Israel and is a member of the boards of directors of the Standards Institution of Israel and ISRAC – The Israel Accreditation Authority.  He has 
a Master’s degree in applied physics from Vilnius Stat e University of Lithuania and has to his credit 
some 39 publications which have appeared in Israel and abroad.   
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