. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/2/Add.103 
12 July 2010 
 (10-3792) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE AGREEMENT  
ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE 
 
Communication from Cambodia
 
 
Addendum  
   The following communication, under Article 15. 2 of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to 
Trade has been received from Cambodia
. 
 
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1. The Law on Standards of Cambodia is the legal b asis for all measures related to standards and 
technical regulations. The law came into force in June 2007. 
2. The Law establishes the Institute of Standa rds of Cambodia, which is charged with 
developing national standards, including mandatory st andards, for products and services, and related 
activities. The Institute also is empowered to ope rate conformity assessment schemes and to certify 
the conformity of products, commodities, etc., when  requested to do so.  The Law further establishes 
the National Standards Council, and empowers it to approve, amend and cancel voluntary and 
mandatory national standards and standard marks.  The Law also describes  the procedures to be 
followed in developing a Cambodian standard; a pproving standard marks; issuing, cancelling and 
suspending a product license;  issuing, revoking and suspending a systems certification; and 
accrediting a conformity assessment or similar body and revoking or suspending such accreditation.  The text of the law is available on the website:  http://www.isc.gov.kh
. 
3. Sub-Decree No. 62 on the Organization and Func tioning of the Institute of Standards of 
Cambodia came into force on 4 June 2008.  The Su b-Decree describes in detail the organization and 
functioning of the Institute of Standards of Cambodia.  
4. There are two Ministerial Regulations that ha ve been issued for specifying the process of 
registration of industrial products and specifying the requirement regarding labe lling of food products.  
The text of those Sub-Decrees and Ministeria l regulations are available on the website:  
http://www.isc.gov.kh  
5. Cambodia has no specific publication used to  announce that work is proceeding on 
regulations, standards and conformity assessment proce dures.  The public is made aware of such work 
through the media, in particular the local press.  The texts of regulations, standards and conformity 
assessment procedures are available through the WTO/ TBT Enquiry Point.  They may also be found 
in the National Gazette. 
6. The public may submit written comments on propos ed texts following the announcement that 
draft texts have been prepared.  The ISC webs ite describes procedures for commenting on line. G/TBT/2/Add.103 
Page 2  
 
  7. The procedure for developing standards is: 
(a) Proposal stage:  The first step in the development of a Cambodian Standard is to 
receive a request from stakeholders who, both  external and internal, have determined 
a need for a particular Cambodian Standa rd.  A new work item proposal (NWP) is 
initiated.  The request is then submitte d for formal approval from the National 
Standards Council (NSC).  Upon approval of  the request, the project is assigned to 
the relevant existing Technical Committee (TC) or Working group (WG), or a new TC or WG may be established by NSC to undertake the project. 
(b) Preparatory stage:  Deliberation of a project  is carried out by the Working Group and 
Technical Committee and the Draft Cambodi an Standards (DCS) is finalized for 
public comments for a period of sixty working days.  The DCS is circulated to 
relevant Stakeholders both external and internal. 
(c) Review stage:  Following the period for public comments, the Final Draft Cambodian  
Standards (FDCS) is reviewed by the TC to address any received comments. 
(d) Approval stage:  Upon acceptance by the TC, the FDCSit is forwarded to NSC for 
approval and then the FDCS will be sent to  the Minister for approval as Cambodian 
Standards. 
(e) Publication stage:  Once a Cambodian Standa rd has been edited, it is sent for printing 
and publishing in the National Gazette. 
8. The address of Cambodia's WTO TBT Enquiry Point is as follows: 
Institute of Standards of Cambodia 
Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy 
Cambodia's WTO/TBT Enquiry Point Tel: (855) 12 856948 Fax: (855) 23 216086 E-mail:  mtbt-infomisc.gov.kh
 
Website:  http://www.isc.gov.kh  
 9. The Law on Standards of Cambodia establishes th e Institute of Standards of Cambodia as the 
agency having functions under the WTO Agreemen t on Technical Barriers to Trade.  No other 
agencies have such functions.  
10. No national or sub-national agency other than the Institute of Standards of Cambodia has the 
authority to prepare new or amend existing t echnical regulations or conformity assessment 
procedures. 
 
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