. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/AUS/37 
5 October 2004 
 (04-4156) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English 
   
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6. 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   AUSTRALIA
 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):         
2. Agency responsible:   Department of Transport and Regional Services 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site 
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be  indicated if different from above:         
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:         
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in  addition, where applicable):   All categories of road 
vehicles 
5. Title, number of pages and lang uage(s) of the notified document:    
Review of commercial vehicle braking regulations (including trailers)  
Australian Design Rule – ADR 35 Commercial ve hicle Brake Systems (19 pages; English) 
Australian Design Rule – ADR 38 Trailer Brake Systems (20 Pages; English) 
Regulation Impact Statement – RIS ADRs 35 & 38 (33 pages; English) 
6. Description of content:   These regulations are being reviewed to ensure that they are 
relevant, cost effective and do not provide a barrier to the importation of safe vehicles and components.  Australia operates a mixed fleet of commercial vehicles sourced from a number of countries and while the original regul ations were based on the USA regulation, 
previous reviews have resulted in partial ha rmonisation with the regulation adopted by the 
United Nations Economic Commission for Eur ope (UNECE), by granting conditional 
acceptance of it as an alternative standard.  Conditional acceptance has meant that UNECE 
complying vehicles could need minor modificati ons and/or retesting to comply with the 
Australian regulation. 
The current review is seeking to achieve ev en closer harmonisation with the UNECE by 
removing most of the conditions on the acceptance of the UNECE complying vehicles. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Protection of human health and safety, in particular, to reduce fatalities and injuries that 
could be caused by substandard heavy commerc ial vehicle brake performance.  Also to 
facilitate trade and improve administrative effi ciency through closer harmonisation with the 
international regulation adopted by the UNECE. G/TBT/N/AUS/37 
Page 2  
 
8. Relevant documents:   Proposed Australian Design Rule – Commercial Vehicle Brake 
Systems ADR 35/0X and Trailer Brake Systems ADR 38/0X, together with the combined draft Regulation Impact Statement for ADRs 35 and 38. 
9. Proposed date of adoption:  1 April 2005  
Proposed date of entry into force:  1 October 2006 
10. Final date for comments:   30 November 2004 
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [    ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:        
Department of Transport and Regional Services 
Vehicle Safety Standards 
GPO Box 594 
CANBERRA  ACT 2601 AUSTRALIA  Telephone: +61 2 6274 7440 
Facsimile: +61 2 6274 7714 
E-mail:  Allan.Jonas@dotars.gov.au  Also available on the Internet Website until 30 November 2004. The URL  for the website 
is: 
http://www.dotars.gov.au/transreg/str_adr_public_comments.htm