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15 and 17 March 2006

TBT Committee Meeting Annotated Draft Agenda

The Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (the “TBT Committee”) will hold its next regular meeting on Wednesday, 15 March 2006 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Friday, 17 March from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

This document has been prepared under the Secretariat’s own responsibility and is without prejudice to the positions of Members and to their rights and obligations under the WTO

Delegations are reminded that a Workshop on different approaches to conformity assessment, including on the acceptance of conformity assessment results, will take place on Thursday, 16 March and will continue in the morning of Friday 17 March. The workshop will start at 10 a.m. on Thursday 16 March. The programme for this event is contained in G/TBT/GEN/31.

Members’ attention is drawn to the fact that, with the exception of a few reference documents, only new documents will be provided in the document set.

The following are the proposed items for the agenda:

1. Adoption of the agenda

The agenda is contained in WTO/AIR/2761, issued on 16 February 2006. Delegations are invited to indicate any items they may wish to raise under “Other Business” (Item 7).

2. Implementation and Administration of the Agreement

(a) Statements from Members under Article 15.2

A list of statements made under Article 15.2 can be found in document G/TBT/GEN/1/Rev.3. In addition, Qatar has submitted on 27 February 2006, its statement (G/TBT/2/Add.87). The latest list of Enquiry Point contact information is contained in document G/TBT/ENQ/27 and more updated information is available here.

(b) Specific Trade Concerns

Under this sub-item, those delegations wishing to address specific trade concerns in relation to the implementation and administration of the Agreement will be invited to DO so. Any delegation who wishes to raise a new specific trade concern is encouraged to inform the Member whose measure is concerned, as well as the Chairman through the Secretariat, in advance of the meeting. At the last meeting, the Committee heard an exchange of views relating to the following issues (relevant documents in parenthesis):    

(a)    The People’s Republic of China — Administration on the Control of Pollution Caused by Electronic Information Products (G/TBT/N/CHN/140)

(b)    United States — DTV Tuner Requirements (G/TBT/N/USA/128)

(c)    European Communities — Directive 2005/32 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2005 establishing a framework for the setting of eco-design requirements for energy-using products and amending Council Directive 92/42/EEC and Directives 96/57/EC and 2000/55/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council

(d)    Japan — Handling of comments on notifications

(e)    Colombia — Labelling of footwear (G/TBT/N/COL/45, Corr.1, Add 1, Add 2 and Add 3)

(f)    South Africa — Labelling requirements for textiles, clothing, shoes and leather goods (G/TBT/N/ZAF/49)

(g)    Peru — Infant food (G/TBT/N/PER/11)

(h)    China — Health Food Regulation (G/TBT/N/CHN/160)

(i)    European Communities — Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) (G/TBT/W/208 and G/TBT/N/EEC/52 and Add.1)

(c) Other Matters

The Chairman will propose that the Committee tentatively schedule its Fifth Special Meeting on Procedures for Information Exchange take place, back-to-back, with the first meeting of the TBT Committee in 2007.

Delegations wishing to raise any other matter relevant to the implementation and administration of the Agreement will be invited to do so under this sub-item.

3. Triennial Review

At the last meeting of the TBT Committee, on 2 November 2005 (G/TBT/M/37), there was general agreement among Members to consider the following five topics as elements of the Fourth Triennial Review:

1.    Good Regulatory Practice
2.    Conformity Assessment
3.    Transparency
4.    Special and Differential Treatment
5.    Technical Assistance

In line with the Work Programme on the Preparation of the Fourth Triennial Review (Annex), the Committee will undertake a “stocktaking” at the current meeting. So as to facilitate this task, the Secretariat has prepared a document on the “Draft Factual Elements” which was circulated to all Members on 15 February 2006 (JOB(06)/24).            

The Chairman will propose the following order of work:

First, each of the above-listed elements will be discussed in turn and Members will be invited to provide any additional contributions they wish to make. The Committee’s attention is drawn to the recent submission from Chinese Taipei (G/TBT/W/261) which addresses the first three elements.

Second, Members will be invited to raise any other topics, either previously identified or new, that they would like to discuss in the context of the Fourth Triennial Review. In the interest of avoiding duplication it is suggested that any outstanding issues arising from the follow-up to the Third Triennial Review that are relevant to the Committee’s discussion under the Fourth Triennial Review, be raised at this point (if not already raised in the discussion of the elements).

Third, the Chairman will present his thoughts on the next steps for the Committee to take in line with the Work Programme.

4. Technical Co-operation

The Chairman will open the floor for any responses to the two voluntary notifications of specific technical assistance needs and responses (G/TBT/16) that have been received to date from Jamaica (G/TBT/TA-1/JAM) and Armenia (G/TBT/TA-2/ARM).

Members and Observers will be invited to provide any other general information on their technical assistance activities. An update of the Secretariat’s technical assistance activities in 2006 will be made available at the meeting.

5. Eleventh Annual Review

The Eleventh Annual Review of the Implementation and Operation of the TBT Agreement (Article 15.3) is contained in document G/TBT/18, issued on 17 February 2006. Delegations will be invited to adopt this document.

Relevant lists of standardizing bodies that have accepted the Code of Good Practice (Annex 3 of the TBT Agreement) are contained in documents G/TBT/CS/1/Add.10 and G/TBT/CS/2/Rev.12. In addition, the 2006 ISO/IEC WTO Standards Code Directory (Tenth Edition) will be made available to delegations as a room document.

6. Updating by Observers

Under this Agenda Item, Observers will be given an opportunity to update the Committee on other relevant work. Observers are encouraged to provide any such information in writing ahead of the meeting. The list of observer organizations and international intergovernmental organizations whose requests for observer status are pending is contained in G/TBT/GEN/2.

7. Other Business

Any issues raised by Members under Item 1 will be addressed here.

8. Election of Chairperson

Consultations are currently being carried out on the selection of Chairpersons under the Council for Trade in Goods.

9. Date of Next Meeting

The next regular meeting of the Committee is tentatively scheduled for 7-8 June 2006.

ANNEX

    FOURTH TRIENNIAL REVIEW

    Work Programme  G/TBT/M/37