WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/W/320 
20 July 2009 
 (09-3539) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original: English 
  
 
FIFTH TRIENNIAL REVIEW OF THE OPERATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF 
THE AGREEMENT ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE 
 
Communication from Israel
 
 
 
 The following communication, dated 16 July 2009, is being circulated at the request of the delegation of Israel
. 
 
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I. INTRODUCTION 
1. The Government of Israel acknowledges the importance of implementing the Agreement on 
Technical Barriers to Trade ("TBT Agreement") a nd thus expresses its support for the work of the 
WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade ("TBT Committee").  The Fifth Triennial Review of the Operation and Implementation of the TBT Agre ement ("Fifth Triennial Review") gives a unique 
opportunity to highlight concerns which have been raised amid the growing number of regulations, 
standards and conformity assessment procedures.  
2. In Israel's view, the main objectives of the Triennial Review should be the following:  
(1) increased transparency on both standards and t echnical regulations with the aim of reducing 
technical barriers in the markets and preventi ng the emergence of new ones; (2) to enhance 
international cooperation; and (3) to encourage the adoption of international standards where 
appropriate.  
3. In light of these objectives, the Government of Israel wishes to comment on selected topics as 
have been discussed within the Fifth Triennial Review's meeting: 
II. SELECTED TOPICS 
A. G
OOD REGULATORY PRACTICE  
4. Israel firmly believes that regulatory coope ration and policy coordination, both at the 
international and domestic levels, should serve to reduce potential negative impact that technical 
regulations may have on international trade.  Se veral submissions that were mentioned during the 
meeting (e.g. G/TBT/W/315, paras. 22-24 and G/ TBT/W/317, para. 24) may well represent positive 
steps in that direction. Israel would be pleased to share its experience with other Members in this field 
and supports organizing a workshop to explore mech anisms for better international coordination of 
regulatory polices. 
B. CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES  
5. Some practices in conformity assessment procedures amount to technical barriers to trade.  
This is compounded by the ongoing proliferation of di fferent requirements in the various countries, G/TBT/W/320 
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  which adds to the difficulties of gaining access to inte rnational trade.  There is therefore a need to 
introduce simplified conformity assessment system s and to promote harmonization among different 
national conformity assessment systems.  That would make a significant contribution to the facilitation of trade between countries. 
6. It is Israel's view that the acceptance of  conformity assessment results should be based inter 
alia on the origin of the product. 
C. S
TANDARDS  
7. Israel believes that the TBT Committee is the appropriate body to conduct a brainstorm 
exercise to examine why some Me mbers choose not to use internati onal standards although available. 
We acknowledge that the definition of an "Interna tional Standard" could be problematic and suggest 
taking into consideration the SPS Committee's met hod of how to define international standards.1  
D. TRANSPARENCY  
8. Transparency is one of the most critical aspects of the TBT Agreement.  It gives Members the 
opportunity to inform other Members at an early stag e of draft regulations that are to be notified, 
thereby enabling them to respond to the new require ments that such drafts seek to introduce with 
regard to the marketing of products.  Israel thus  urges Members to comply with the transparency 
obligations established in the TBT Agreement and to notify their draft technical regulations and 
conformity assessment procedures while it is still possi ble to discuss their content and submit relevant 
comments. 
9. Several proposals refer to the possibility of pub lication or translation of Members' standards 
and technical regulations.  Israel wishes to draw  Members' attention to the important issue of 
Intellectual Property Rights and the necessity to offer full copyright protection to creators of 
standards.  Israel thus recommends  that the Secretariat arranges for a meeting or a workshop, together 
with ISO, regarding this issue.  
10. Israel remains confident that Members would ta ke into consideration the need to converge 
their standards and technical regulations to intern ational standards, so as to minimize the effects 
associated with regulatory divergence. A proposal made during the Review's meeting (G/TBT/W/312, 
paras. 5(a) and (b), 14(a)) is a good example of the way to promote such harmonization. 
11. In order to enable interested parties, notably  small countries, to further participate in the 
working process, Israel believes that the period of  time allowed for comments should start from the 
date of circulation of the notification.  
12. Israel supports the creation of a website which brings together all comments on notifications 
received and replies thereto. We believe the proposal s made in this regard (G/TBT/W/311, para. 2 and 
G/TBT/W/313, para. 11(f)) complement each other and could be merged into a single decision.  This 
should be without prejudice to Members' rights to regulate according to their individual needs and 
policies. 
E. ENQUIRY POINTS  
13. Israel acknowledges the need to provide the pa rties, and especially developing countries, 
technical assistance to establish and operate their enquiry and notification points. 
                                                      
1 See article 3 of Annex A of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary 
Measures. G/TBT/W/320 
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  F. OPERATION OF THE COMMITTEE  
14. Israel supports the establishment of a work pr ogram aimed at evaluating the impact that 
technical regulations may have on trade, so as to create awareness by sharing knowledge and expertise, as well as analyzing common challenges and successful solutions.  We suggest that such a 
work programme could examine, in addition, the correlation between the adoption of international 
standards and trade volumes. 
 
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