The Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement aims to ensure that regulations standards testing and certification procedures followed by WTO members do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade. Annual Review of TBT Agreement The WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade collects data on an annual basis on the implementation of the TBT Agreement. The information in this brochure is based on the 2023 review. About the WTO The World Trade Organization is the international body dealing with the global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly predictably and freely as possible with a level playing field for all its members.
The Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement aims to ensure that regulations standards testing and certification procedures followed by WTO members do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade. The WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade conducts an annual review of the implementation of the TBT Agreement. The information in this brochure is based on the 2020 review.
The WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) entered into force with the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 1 January 1995. It aims to ensure that product requirements in regulations and standards (on safety quality health etc.) as well as procedures for assessing product compliance with such requirements (testing inspection accreditation etc.) are not unjustifiably discriminatory and/or do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade.
The TBT Agreement entered into force on 1 January 1995. It is one of the various WTO agreements annexed to the WTO Agreement. As indicated above the TBT Agreement belongs to the family of multilateral WTO agreements dealing with trade in goods (the GATT and the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) are examples of other “goods” agreements).
This fully revised and expanded third edition provides an overview of the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement and the types of measures it covers.
Broadly speaking the WTO agreements for the two largest areas of trade – goods and services – share a common threepart outline even though the details are sometimes different (see Figure 1).
On 10 November 2020 the WTO circulated the compliance panel report in the case brought by Brazil in “Indonesia — Measures Concerning the Importation of Chicken Meat and Chicken Products” (DS484).
On 9 June 2020 the Appellate Body issued its reports in the cases brought by Honduras and the Dominican Republic in “Australia — Certain Measures Concerning Trademarks Geographical Indications and Other Plain Packaging Requirements Applicable to Tobacco Products and Packaging” (DS435 and DS441).
Mainly affecting trade in medical products and food such standards and regulatory measures typically account for two-thirds of the notifications members submit to the WTO in line with obligations under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS). These agreements set out disciplines for standards and regulatory measures used to protect human animal and plant life and health the environment and product safety. The paper notes that most of the COVID-related notifications were submitted under the emergency/urgent notification provisions in the two agreements in response to the pressing health problems posed by the pandemic. The notifications mainly concern trade in personal protective equipment food live animals medical equipment and medicines. The notified measures fall under four main categories: streamlining certification procedures; ensuring safe medical goods; making food available by relaxing technical regulations; and addressing COVID-19 risks from international trade in live animals.
On 4 February 2020 the Appellate Body issued its report in the case brought by Ukraine in “ Russia - Measures affecting the importation of railway equipment and parts thereof” (DS499).
Most specific trade concerns (STCs) which are raised before the WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Committee) disappear from the TBT Committee’s meeting agendas without escalating into formal disputes. At the same time a relatively small number of TBT-related disputes have been subject to the WTO dispute settlement procedures. By examining the practice of raising STCs and the relationship between STCs and disputes the paper emphasises the role of STCs as a trade tension resolution mechanism.
This paper investigates how RTAs treat disputes concerning their TBT provisions in particular whether they treat them differently from other types of dispute and how they deal with any potential overlap with the WTO when the substantive obligations of the RTA and the WTO TBT Agreement are the same (or similar).
On 30 July 2018 the WTO circulated the panel report in the case brought by Ukraine in “Russia - Measures affecting the importation of railway equipment and parts thereof.
On 28 June 2018 the WTO circulated the panel report in the cases brought by Honduras the Dominican Republic Cuba and Indonesia in “Australia — Certain Measures Concerning Trademarks Geographical Indications and Other Plain Packaging Requirements Applicable to Tobacco Products and Packaging.
On 25 April 2017 the WTO issued the dispute panel reports in the case "United States - Measures concerning the importation marketing and sale of tuna and tuna products".
On 13 April 2017 an Arbitrator issued her Award regarding the “reasonable period of time” for implementing the recommendations and rulings of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) in the dispute “United States — Anti-dumping and Countervailing Measures on large residential washers from Korea” (WT/DS464). The Arbitrator determined that the “reasonable period of time” for the United States to implement the DSB’s recommendations and rulings in this dispute is 15 months from the adoption of the panel and Appellate Body Reports in this dispute. The reasonable period of time will thus expire on 26 December 2017.