. /.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/W/131
29 March 2000
(00-1277)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English
WTO/TBT AGREEMENT AND INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
Communications from the IEC and ISO
The following communications have been received from the International Electrotechnical
Commission (IEC) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) with the requests that
they be circulated to Members of the Committee.
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I. COMMUNICATION FROM THE IEC
1. The WTO/TBT Agreement recognizes the importa nt contribution that international standards
(IS) can make by improving efficiency of production and facilitating international trade.
2. The existence of clearly developed international standardizing bodies (ISBs) that develop
these IS is therefore a corner-stone on which the TBT Agreement is based.  This requires overall
acceptance that ISBs themselves comply with principles mirroring those on which the TBTAgreement, including the Code of Good Practice, is based and which it imposes on national and
regional standards bodies.
3. The TBT Agreement calls for the formulation of standards at national, regional and
international levels through a consensus-based procedure requiring compliance where appropriate
with international standards in existence or in preparation.  This procedure is underpinned by the
requirements for national and regional standardizing bodies to comply with the relevant guides and
recommendations issued by ISBs.  Annex 1 of the TBT Agreement expressly adopts the terms
presented in the sixth edition of the ISO/IEC Guide 2, 1991, General Terms and their Definitions
Concerning Standardization and Related Activities.  This has subsequently been replaced by Guide 2:
1996 version (the Guide).
4. For ISBs to play the role attributed to them  by the TBT Agreement, the IS that they issue
should result from certain basis principles which are already included in or can be inferred from the
TBT Agreement.
A. CONSTITUTION5. The TBT Agreement defines ISBs as bodies "whose membership is open to the relevant
national body in every country" (ISO/IEC Guide 2 cl. 4.3.2).  In this way, the ISB functions to create
an independent synergy with the various national standards bodies (while part of their income is
derived from national contribution), and has an overreaching objective role to approve and issuestandards without discrimination or undue influence.
6. The TBT Agreement defines a "national standards body" as a "standards body recognized at
the national level that is eligible to be the national member of the corresponding international and
regional standards organization (ISO/IEC Guide 2 cl. 4.4.1).G/TBT/W/131
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7. To avoid proliferation and unnecessary duplication of national and regional bodies, the
constitution of the ISBs concerned needs, as a practical necessity, to limit membership to the
appropriate national bodies that ensure concentration of national interests in the relevant field of
activity.  This, in turn, permits the formation of a single delegation representing the interests of the
territory concerned.  To achieve this, WTO members should ensure that the development of standardswithin their territories is organized so as to permit the creation of national or regional standards bodies
as foreseen in the TBT Agreement and Code of  Good Practice (Annex 3 of the Agreement).  This
simplifies procedures and increases the effectiveness and rapidity of the development of international
standards.
B. CONSENSUS
8. The ISB constitution should permit fully open discussion with all parties on a global basis
through a broad consultation procedure adopted to arrive at a consensus after taking due account of all
relevant interests.  The consultation procedures should follow the same principles as the Code of
Good Practice adopted by the TBT Agreement.
C. TRANSPARENCY
9. All international standards should be developed with openness and transparency, thereby
ensuring harmonization and avoiding duplication and overlap with other international standards.  This
should be ensured by the development of international standards through the publicly available workof broadly based technical committees which circulate draft texts which are available to interested
parties.  Regular publication of International Standards and of the programme of work is necessary to
ensure continuous availability of reference documentation.
10. ISBs should be capable of responding promptly and effectively to demands for international
standards, and of close cooperation in their developm ent with regional or national bodies or any other
interested parties.  Work programmes should be tailored to accommodate language and regional
factors as well as the needs of developing countries.  Regular publication of the work programmes and
development stages reached is necessary to encourage the fullest participation by interested parties.
11. It is the IEC's view that only those bodies that act according to these principles should be
recognized by the WTO as International Standardizing Bodies.
II. COMMUNICATION FROM THE ISO
12. The Secretary-General of the ISO thinks that it would be useful for WTO Members to know
that the basic principles reported by IEC (above) are entirely consistent with the long standingposition of the ISO on the same issues, and as are expressed in practical detail in ISO/IEC Guide 59
Code of Good Practice for Standardization intended for adoption by any standardizing body which
approves standards using procedures based on the principles of consensus.
13. In particular, it is important for WTO Members to know that ISO and its member place the
highest value on the need for International Standa rds to be agreed via processes that are fully
transparent, open to all interested parties via national member delegations, and effectively
safeguarding the interests of all participants in the multilateral rule-based trading system.
14. We, like our colleagues in the IEC, want to stress that international standards bodies have an
obligation to respect the same principles of membership and due process that form the basis for
WTO membership, as well as our own.  Organizations that develop standards without observing these
principles should not expect them to enjoy recogn ition as International Standards in the WTO context.
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