30th anniversary of TBT Agreement
DG Okonjo-Iweala underlined the importance of the TBT Agreement. “For thirty years, the TBT Agreement has provided a multilateral framework for cooperation on standards and regulations — something members recognized at MC13 earlier this year in the first-ever Ministerial Declaration specifically on the TBT Agreement,” she said.
The declaration reaffirms the Agreement’s continuing relevance to modern global trade challenges and emerging policy concerns, including climate change, the digital economy and global health pandemics, the DG underscored. She commended the Committee for setting a proactive agenda for the next three years, including discussions on emerging challenges.
Emphasizing that the Committee’s work plays a vital role in keeping trade flowing, she said: “During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, suspending unnecessary barriers and streamlining certification procedures helped reduce avoidable delays in moving goods across borders. Health is only one source of the measures you deal with — you are also active on environment, especially climate change, and the digital economy.”
Deputy Director-General Jean-Marie Paugam, Daniela García of Ecuador (Chair of the TBT Committee), Ambassador Simon Manley (Permanent Representative of the UK to the WTO) and Lahya Shitenga-Hambinga from the Namibian Standards Institution participated in the opening session that reflected on the origins and evolution of the TBT Agreement.
This was followed by a discussion on how the TBT Agreement and the work of the TBT Committee have helped standards organizations to accomplish their objectives and how the TBT Agreement can address emerging global challenges.
The final session looked at the impact of the TBT Committee’s work on businesses engaging in international trade. It focussed in particular on medical devices, clothing and accessories, and the food and drink industry.
The full programme and the session recordings can be found here.
10th Triennial Review
At the Committee’s meeting on 4-7 November, members adopted a three-year work programme as part of the Committee’s mandated review of the TBT Agreement. The 10th Triennial Review report summarizes the main achievements of the Committee over the past three years and looks ahead to the next three-year cycle.
The Committee agreed to work on a number of key regulatory matters, including:
- regulatory impact assessments
- medical device regulation
- lithium-ion batteries
- traceability requirements in bulk agricultural commodities
- critical emerging technologies, such as AI, biofuel, clean energy generation and storage, and semiconductors
- decarbonization standards in the steel sector.
Cross-cutting work with other WTO bodies is foreseen, including with the Committee on the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD), the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) and the Trade Facilitation Committee (TFA).
The review is based on proposals submitted by members. More information on members’ proposals and the conduct of the TBT Review can be found here. The Review document, as adopted, is contained in G/TBT/56.
Specific trade concerns
Members raised 11 new trade concerns regarding proposed and final TBT regulations, as well as 51 previously raised concerns. The full list is available here.
Discussions focused on a range of new trade concerns, notably in sectors such as textiles, medical devices, and environmental regulations. Topics included methodologies for calculating and verifying the carbon footprint of electric batteries, circularity requirements for vehicle design and production, and the classification of certain chemicals used in food-contact materials, such as food packaging. Other topics included regulatory requirements for off-road mobile machinery, certification processes for cosmetics, and the traceability of diamonds. Environmental issues, in particular, continued to draw considerable attention throughout the discussions.
Continuing a positive trend, more WTO members are reporting progress in resolving specific trade concerns. The United States and Japan shared updates on advances made in addressing several trade issues, highlighting collaborative efforts to find effective solutions.
Transparency
The WTO Secretariat provided an update on a project proposal submitted earlier this year to the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) aimed at enhancing transparency through improved use of the ePing platform, which facilitates the tracking of TBT measures. Approved by the STDF Working Group in June, this initiative marks the first STDF project to be implemented by the WTO, bringing a holistic approach to regulatory transparency and targeting stakeholders with an interest in both sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and TBT matters.
The project’s goal is to improve the clarity, predictability and coordination of SPS and TBT regulations impacting trade. It will promote expanded use of ePing in five target countries — Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda — including through technological upgrades based on feedback from these countries and a broader survey among WTO members. Scheduled to begin early next year, the project is set to run for three years.
During an ePing information session held on the margins of the Committee meeting, Kenya and Namibia shared insights into their experiences with ePing and discussed their domestic coordination mechanisms, underscoring the platform’s role in enhancing regulatory transparency.
Technical assistance
TBT and SPS are among the most requested and delivered topics for WTO capacity-building activities. More than 22,000 people have been recipients of TBT-SPS training in the last 10 years alone, by far the highest number among all WTO topics, as outlined in DDG Xiangchen Zhang’s recent blog, “Thirty years of WTO technical assistance enhancing participation in world trade”.
The Secretariat gave members an overview of TBT training activities undertaken in 2024. More information is available here. The WTO’s Institute for Technical Cooperation and Training (ITTC) also shared with the Committee the suite of training products available to members. More information is here.
The Committee also heard from the TBT Transparency Champions from Kenya and Namibia on how they have benefitted from technical assistance activities organized by the WTO Secretariat. TBT technical assistance also featured in various decisions taken by the Committee at the 10th Triennial Review.
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