RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/ACC/807/11
20 December 2000
(00-5573)
Working Party on the Accession of the
Former Yugoslav Republic of MacedoniaOriginal:  English
ACCESSION OF THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA
Implementation of the WTO Agreement on
Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)
The Government of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has submitted the following
information on the implementation of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT),
with the request that it be circulated to members of the Working Party.
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No. Macedonian ComplianceRequirements under the
Agreement on Technical
Barriers to Trade1
1. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Article 3, Paragraph 1
"Products or goods under this Law shall be: raw materials, semi-
products, assemblies, final products, industrial and craft products,agricultural and food processing products, soft and alcoholic drinks,additives, seed and seedling material of  agricultural and forestry plants,
facilities, installations, devices, equipment and other instruments oflabour."TBT Agreement
Article 1.3
2. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Chapter V
Measures to provide quality, technical and structural security of
products and services
Subchapter 1AttestationComment:
This Chapter provides for the same treatment of like products of
national  and foreign origin.
Article 15, Paragraph 1"The provisions of this Law and the regulations adopted on the basis of
this law shall also apply to imported products and leased products
imported  from abroad to be used in the Republic of Macedonia."TBT Agreement
Articles 2.1, 5.1.1, 5.2.1
                                                     
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3. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Article 1, Paragraph 2, Item 1 & 8"Standards and provisions under this Law shall be adopted and applied
in such a manner as to create a technical and technological basis for:
1) Market development and elimination of constraints in the foreign
trade of goods and services;…
8) Involvement in the international economic cooperation."TBT Agreement
Articles 2.2, 5.1.2
4. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Article 13, Paragraph 1"Standards and regulations under this Law shall be adopted, amended,
revised and replaced by new standards and regulations in conformity
with  standardization programs, changes in the international standards
and  demands of the economy"
Article 21"The Bureau for Standardization and Metrology (BSM) may give
technical recommendations containing data on new applicationtechnologies and methods so as to transfer more quickly technological
knowledge and take direction toward the use of new technology in the
areas having intensive and technological development."
Article 35"An enterprise or another legal entity may, in the process of production
and trade with goods, exclusive of production of seeds and seedlingmaterial for agricultural and forest plants, in the course of their work
and provision of services, deviate from the mandatory Macedonian
standards and  prescribed norms on quality of products and services,upon a previously obtained approval from the BSM."TBT Agreement
Articles 2.3
5. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Article 76, Paragraph 1 and 2"The BSM shall cooperate with international organizations in the area
of standardization and shall, in its scope, deliver activities relating to
preparation, conclusion and execution of international agreements.
The BSM shall cooperate with international specialized organizations
for standardization and take part in the work of their organs andworking bodies. As a member, BSM shall be involved in theinternational systems of attestation, acceptance of testing results and
quality assurance, and shall apply such systems in compliance with the
provisions of this Law. In that process BSM shall cooperate withinterested enterprises and other legal entities, the Chamber ofCommerce of the Republic of Macedonia, specialized organizationsand administrative bodies."TBT Agreement
Articles 2.6, 5.5, 9WT/ACC/807/11
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6. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Article 36"Any approval for exemption from the Macedonian standards and
norms on quality in respect to Article 35 of this Law, may be provided
upon detailed request of the contractor, producer or service performer,
for a specified quantity of products, a specified period of time or aperformance of a particular work.
If the products or works in question are for projects, devices,
equipment or other instruments of work of special interest to thedefense, the BSM shall, under the requirement of paragraph 1 of this
Article, be obliged to obtain an opinion from the Ministry of Defense.
The BSM may not issue an approval for exemption from the
Macedonian standards and norms of quality if such an exemptionendangers life and health, environment, nature and defense and safetyinterests of the Republic of Macedonia.
An appeal against the decision of the BSM refusing the request in
paragraph 3 of this Article may be filed with the Ministry of Economy.
Products that deviate from the Macedonian standards and norms on
quality, must be marked with an identification of the number and dateof the pertinent approval."TBT Agreement
Article 2.7
7. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Chapter IIIProvisions on technical and stru ctural security and qualities of
products, goods and services
Subchapter 1Provisions on technical scale of normsSubchapter 2Provisions on the quality of products, goods and services
Comments:
This Chapter and the two Subchapters provide, wherever appropriate,
product requirements concerning performance rather than design ordescriptive characteristics.TBT Agreement
Article 2.8
8. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Article 28"Draft standards are considered in  a way that allows all interested
parties to present their opinions, notes and recommendations.
… not later than a month following the date when the information for
opening a discussion on a Macedonian standard was published, unless alonger timeframe is determined."
Article 77, Paragraph 1, Item 2 and 5"The BSM shall disseminate information in the area of standardization
trough: …
2) News media, catalogues and other publications which are issued…TBT Agreement
Articles 2.9, 2.10WT/ACC/807/11
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5) Submission of working and other materials in the process of
programming, planning, drafting and adopting Macedonianstandards and regulations provided for under this Law, ofinternational standards and rules and international standard systems
for attesting, acceptance of testing results and quality assurance, as
well as of forms and working and other materials of other forms ofinternational expert cooperation in the field of standardization."
9. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Article 29"Macedonian standards regulations are published in the Official
Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia, while standards are published in
a separate publication of the BSM for standards.
Reprint of Macedonian standards including regulations issued in a
special edition of the BSM may be carried out by an organizationauthorized by the Ministry of Economy."TBT Agreement
Article 2.11
10. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Article 1, Paragraph 3"The international standards shall be used as a basis to draft the
standards and regulations provided for under this Law."
Chapter IIStandardsComments:In this Chapter the Republic of Macedonia applies the rules of Annex 3
"Code of good practice" for preparation, adoption and application of
the Macedonian standards.TBT Agreement
Article 4.1
11. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Article 57"The costs of the procedure under Articles 43, 46, 47, 48, 52, 53, 54
and 55 of this Law shall be charged to the applicant of request.
Costs under Paragraph 1 of this Article shall be: administration fees,
product testing costs, procedural activities costs and costs for taking the
required number of samples.
Procedural activities under Paragraph 2 of this Article shall encompass:1) Processing of product attestation requirements (Article 43),
authorization (Articles 46, 52 and 55) and certificates requirements(Articles 53 and 54);
2) Check up of data required under point 1 of this Article in the
applicant’s request; and
3) Work supervision of authorized organizations (Articles 48, 52 and
55), acknowledged producers (Articles 53) and accreditedlaboratories (Article 54).
The cost of product testing and performance of procedural activities
shall be covered according to the Fee Schedule adopted by the
Government of the Republic of Macedonia."TBT Agreement
Article 5.2.5WT/ACC/807/11
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12. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Article 20"Should standards and regulations provided for certain products, goods
and services under this Law not be enacted, until the adoption of the
said standards international and foreign standards may be applied in the
production of products, the performance of work and the provision ofservices, upon the approval of the director."TBT Agreement
Article 5.6
13. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Article 85"The Minister of Economy shall adopt regulations on: technical
standards (Articles 31); quality of products, goods and services (Article
33); form and use of the trademark of conformity (Article 48,
Paragraph 5); mandatory attestation of products (Article 42); technicalsupervision (Article 64); substantive contents of technical instructionsand manuals (Article 65); repair shops and supply of spare parts andother products (Article 66); products that must be accompanied by awritten guarantee (Article 67); products that must be accompanied by
particular documents and services for which certain documents must be
obtained (Article 68); declarations, marking of products (Article 71);product packing (Article 72) and official identity cards of supervisors(Article 81)."
Article 86"As an exception to the provision of Article 85 under this Law, the
Minister of Economy in agreement with the Minister of Health shall
adopt regulations pertaining to technical standards (Article 31), inparticular technical standards that might impact the security of life andworkers’ health including regulations on quality (Article 32)concerning the composition of food products that influences their
biological values."
Article 87"The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy shall adopt
regulations on the quality of seeds and seedling materials ofagricultural and forestry plants (Article 32, Paragraph 4).
The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy shall
determine laboratories that will issue quality certificates for seed and
seedling material for agricultural and forestry plants to be exported, andshall undertake measures so that such laboratories are registered withan international organization. The Minister shall also appoint officersthat meet testing seed and seedling material requirements, who will bemembers in the international organization, and shall see that the work
of the laboratories is supervised (Article 32, Paragraph 3)."TBT Agreement
Article 5.8WT/ACC/807/11
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14. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Article 58"The certificate of conformity, the product testing report, the
publication of homologation and other appropriate documents of
conformity and product quality issued abroad shall be recognized in the
Republic of Macedonia in the following events and provided that:
1) an international agreement that is binding on the Republic of
Macedonia provides for an obligation of the country-signatoryunder the terms and conditions therein;
2) such documents are issued under international attestation systems,
acceptance of testing results or other international systems for
quality in conformity with the rules of the said internationalsystems, provided that BSM is their member; and
3) the documents from paragraph 1 of this Article are issued by an
organization that performs an appropriate activity abroad.
The recognition of documentation under paragraph 1 of this Article is
carried out by the BSM following an examination of the data containedin the submitted documentation, and inspection or review of one ormore characteristics of the product.
The costs of documentation recognition under Paragraph 1 of this
Article shall be covered in conformity with the regulations pertaining to
administrative fees.
Recognition of documentation under Paragraph 1 of this Article does
not include control of conformity and product testing in the Republic ofMacedonia."TBT Agreement
Article 6
15. Law on Standardization ("Official Gazette" 23/95)
Article 46"Attesting of products under this Law may be carried out by the BSM
or an organization authorized by the BSM.
To attest products, the BSM may authorize an organization that:1) has the capacity of a legal entity; and2) meets the prescribed requirements concerning staff, qualifications
and technical equipment in conformity with the Macedonianstandards.
The Director shall adopt a decision that authorizes a particular
organization as provided in Paragraph 2 of this Article.
Based on the decision from Paragraph 3 of this Article, the organization
shall acquire the title "organization authorized for attesting ofproducts".
An appeal against the decision of the BSM, by which the request for
authorization under Paragraph 2 of this Article is rejected, may be filed
with the Ministry of Economy.
For testing of particular products or types of products for which the
BSM issues certificates of conformity, as well as for performance oftechnical and administrative works related to such testing, the BSMTBT Agreement
Article 8WT/ACC/807/11
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may authorize laboratories, testing stations and other qualifiedinstitutions that are not legal entities, provided that they meet the otherrequirements under Article 54 of this Law.
When attestation of products is carried out by the BSM, attestation
testing may be carried out at the facilities of the manufacturer. Such a
testing shall be supervized by an authorized expert or a qualified BSMcommittee."
Article 54"Assessment of the capacities of laboratories, testing stations and other
qualified institutions (hereinafter "l aboratories") shall, under this Law,
include procedures used to determine laboratories' capacities to carry
out testing of products under the terms and methods of the Macedonianstandards defining operating criteria for laboratories and theMacedonian standards defining methods for testing products, i.e. therules of international systems and standards that apply to such systems.
The BSM shall assess a laboratory’s capacity under Paragraph 1 of this
Article.
The BSM shall issue a capacity certificate for product testing to
laboratories for which it has determined that they meet the prescribedrequirements.
On the basis of the certificate under Paragraph 3 of this Article, a
laboratory shall be entitled to the title "accredited laboratory".
The BSM shall supervise the permanent compliance of accredited
laboratories with the testing requirements of the Macedonian standardsand the international systems rules and standards applicable to suchsystems, and shall keep record of accredited laboratories.
Supervision of accredited laboratories, measures to be undertaken to
remove shortcomings identified during supervision, invalidation of the
certificate under Paragraph 3 of this Article and deletion from therecords of accredited laboratories, shall be carried out in conformitywith Article 53, Paragraph 4 and 5 of this Law.
Accredited laboratories shall be obliged to keep product testing data
secret."
16. The Republic of Macedonia has no enquiry point as required by Article
10 of the TBT Agreement. The BSM provides information related to
Article 10 of the TBT Agreement to interested parties.
An enquiry point as required in Article 10 of the TBT Agreement will
be established prior to the accession.TBT Agreement
Article 10
17. The Republic of Macedonia applies approximately 12000 standards
inherited from the former SFRY and about 80 percent of them aremandatory. Most of the standards conform or are equivalent to the
international standards.
It is the intention of the Republic of Macedonia to follow TBT
Agreement rules and to make all standards voluntary under the newLaw on Standardization.TBT Agreement
Annex 1, Item 2
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