. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/L/871 
14 November 2008 
 (08-5566) 
  
  
 
 
REPORT (2008) OF THE COMMITTEE ON  TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE 
 
 
1. The Committee held its forty-fifth to fo rty-seventh regular meetings on 20 March, 
1-2 July and 5-6 November 2008, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Raminder S. Sidhu (India) and 
Ms Xueyan Guo (China).
1 
2. At each of the meetings in 2008, the Committe e heard statements by a number of Members 
informing the Committee of measures taken to ensu re the implementation and administration of the 
Agreement.  In total, since 1995, 117 Member s have submitted at least one Statement on 
implementation under Article 15.2. 
3. New specific trade concerns were brought to th e attention of the Committee with regard to 
their potential adverse trade effects or inconsiste ncy with the Agreement, and the Committee heard 
exchanges on trade concerns that had been previously raised.  
4. During the reporting period, the Committee continued the exchange of experiences on issues 
arising from the Fourth Triennial Review of th e Operation and Implementation of the Agreement 
under Article 15.4 (G/TBT/19), name ly: good regulatory practice, conformity assessment procedures, 
transparency, technical assistance and special and di fferential treatment.  With a view to deepening 
understanding of the contribution good regulatory pr actice can make to the implementation of the 
TBT Agreement and advancing its work in th is area, the Committee held a workshop on good 
regulatory practice on 18-19 March 2008.  This wo rkshop addressed the following topics: general 
approaches of Members to good regulatory practi ce; internal transparency and consultative 
mechanisms; regulatory impact assessment and re gulatory cooperation initiatives between Members.2   
5. At its meeting on 20 March 2008, the Committee adopted its report of the Thirteenth Annual 
Review of the Implementation and Operation of the TBT Agreement under Article 15.3 (G/TBT/23).  
At the same meeting, the Committee carried out th e Thirteenth Annual Review of the Code of Good 
Practice for the Preparation, Adoption and Applicati on of Standards.  This work was based on the 
following background documents:  a list of standardiz ing bodies that have accepted the Code in the 
period under review (G/TBT/CS/1/Add.12), a list of standardizing bodies that have accepted the Code 
since 1 January 1995 (G/TBT/CS/2/Rev.14) and the Thirteenth Edition of the WTO TBT Standards Code Directory prepared by the ISO/IEC Information Centre. 
6. The Committee carried out, at its meeting on 5-6 November 2008, the Seventh Annual 
Transitional Review mandated in the Protocol of Accession of the People's Republic of China 
(G/TBT/24). 
                                                     
 
1 G/TBT/M/44-46. 
2 A summary report of the workshop on good regulatory practice is contained in G/TBT/W/287.  The 
Chairman's Report of the workshop to the TBT Committee is contained in G/TBT/M/44, Annex 1.  G/L/871 
Page 2  
 
  7. During the reporting period, representatives of the Codex, IEC, ISO, ITC, OECD, OIML, 
UNECE and UNIDO updated the Committee on activities relevant to the work of the TBT Committee, including on technical assistance.  
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