The new chairperson of the TBT Committee, Daniela García (Ecuador), has assumed her role from outgoing chairperson Anna Vitie (Finland). García highlighted a new WTO brochure that underscores 10 key outcomes from the TBT Committee's work in 2023. Members expressed appreciation for Vitie's tenure, during which significant decisions on conformity assessment and transparency were made, including the Ministerial Declaration on Strengthening Regulatory Cooperation to Reduce Technical Barriers to Trade.
The TBT Committee welcomed the completion of a good practice guide on commenting on a member's notification (G/TBT/GEN/386). This guide provides TBT Enquiry Points and other stakeholders with comprehensive instructions on how to offer feedback on trading partners' regulations before they are finalized. The guide was developed with input from volunteer Enquiry Points from Australia, Kenya, Namibia, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, and the United States and through discussions in the Transparency Working Group. Further materials targeting a broader range of stakeholders are planned.
Australia and the United States shared their positive experiences using the newly adopted online format and guidelines for notifying updates to their "statements of implementation" under Article 15.2 of the TBT Agreement via ePing. These notifications focus on members' legal and institutional arrangements to implement TBT Agreement commitments. Other members were encouraged to use this new format.
After adopting Guidelines on Conformity Assessment (G/TBT/54) in March 2024, the Committee discussed follow-up actions such as raising awareness about these guidelines and sharing experiences regarding their use.
In line with its June 2023 timeline, WTO members submitted 38 proposals under the 10th Triennial Review of the TBT Agreement for defining work for 2025-2027. Proposals came from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, EU countries, Kenya, New Zealand, Paraguay, Russia, Chinese Taipei, UK and US. The review will be finalized at the November 2024 meeting. Key areas include regulatory cooperation between members, transparency standards conformity assessment and committee operations covering diverse topics like trade and gender additive manufacturing metrology market surveillance good regulatory practices decarbonization standards among others.
Members raised seven new trade concerns regarding proposed or final TBT regulations as well as revisiting 53 previously raised concerns. Issues included animal welfare regulations referencing international standards domestic regulatory fragmentation quality infrastructure environmental objectives duplicative testing transparency among others.
Brazil Paraguay UK US reported progress concerning several previously raised trade concerns.
The Secretariat announced that ePing is now available in six languages including recent additions Chinese Vietnamese following Portuguese in 2023 facilitating tracking of TBT measures users can receive alerts on notifications about product regulations find information on trade concerns discussed A walk-in session was held showcasing recent enhancements allowing members to pose questions
The next TBT Committee week is scheduled for November 5-8 The Secretariat will organize an event celebrating thirty years since establishing celebrating bringing together current past delegates experts reflecting past present future