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Technical barriers to trade (TBT) refer to technical regulations and voluntary standards that set out specific characteristics of a product, such as its size, shape, design, functions and performance, or the way a product is labelled or packaged before it enters the marketplace. Included in this set of measures are also the technical procedures which confirm that products fulfil the requirements laid down in regulations and standards.
All these measures usually serve legitimate goals of public policy – e.g. protecting human health and safety, or the environment. At the same time, product standards and other TBT have an important influence on market access and the export performance of businesses. They can be costly and burdensome by design or effect and restrict international trade.
The WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade contains rules specifically aimed at preventing these measures from becoming unnecessary barriers. However, technical barriers are reported to continue to pose at times substantial difficulties for traders and merit scrutiny from a market access perspective.
To deepen understanding of their nature and trade effects, OECD is investigating various types of technical barriers as part of its work programme on non-tariff barriers to trade.
It is pursuing work in the area of product labelling, where practices have grown more complex in recent years and traders and governments have voiced concerns about potentially negative implications for market access.
Other work under way focuses on conformity assessment (CA) procedures. These procedures assess conformity of products, processes and services to specific requirements or standards and typically involve components such as testing, certification and accreditation.
In this area, the OECD Secretariat recently collected data assessing the nature and extent of trade problems arising from conformity assessment (CA) procedures. This exercise involved two factual surveys aimed at 1) exporters and 2) conformity assessment bodies in a selection of OECD member countries and carried out in 2004-05. Case studies documenting experiences of exporters in developing countries, and a review of the CA discussion taking place in the WTO Committee on TBT since 1995, will complement this work and feed into the analysis of trade problems and opportunities seen to arise from CA procedures and practices.
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