OBSTÁCULOS TÉCNICOS AL COMERCIO: REUNIÓN DEL COMITÉ OTC
8-10 de noviembre de 2006: Reunión del Comité OTC Adoptado el Cuarto Examen Trienal
El 9 de noviembre de 2006, después de dos años de trabajos preparatorios, el Comité de Obstáculos Técnicos al Comercio de la OMC adoptó su informe sobre el Cuarto Examen Trienal. El informe ofrece un panorama general de la labor del Comité tras 11 años de aplicación y establece un programa para el futuro.
El presente documento ha sido preparado por la Secretaría bajo su responsabilidad. Sólo tiene por objeto ofrecer información general y no es su propósito afectar a los derechos u obligaciones de los Miembros.
(solamente en inglés)
In the Fourth Triennial Review Report (“the Report”), six elements were
considered:
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Implementation and Administration of the Agreement: since 1995, 108 Members have submitted a statement to the WTO on the measures taken to ensure the implementation and administration of the Agreement. This is an obligation for Members. The latest list of Members having submitted their statements can be found here G/TBT/GEN/1/Rev.4.
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Good Regulatory Practice: members stress in the Report the benefits of simplifying and improving regulatory environments and emphasize the need for openness, transparency and accountability in the development and application of technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures. The Review states that an appropriate regulatory framework can enhance predictability and innovation and thereby provide a more stable business climate. It also emphasizes the importance of regulatory cooperation between regulators from different countries as a means of achieving a better understanding of different regulatory systems.
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Conformity Assessment Procedures: the Review Report builds on previous work, including two WTO workshops on this subject: one on Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity (SDoC) on 21 March 2005 G/TBT/M/35 and another on Different Approaches to Conformity Assessment G/TBT/M/38/Add.1, held in March the following year. It considers various approaches to conformity assessment (such as SDoC and accreditation to qualify conformity assessment bodies) and includes a section about facilitating the recognition of conformity assessment results, for instance through voluntary mutual recognition arrangements among individual laboratories, certification and inspection bodies — or even regional and multilateral recognition arrangements between accreditation bodies.
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Transparency: over successive Reviews, decisions and procedural guidelines have been developed. Similar to earlier reviews, the Report contains a number of decisions and recommendations aimed at further refining the Committee’s transparency procedures.
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Technical Assistance: the Report stresses the importance of building upon previous work on improving transparency to ensure the flow of information on technical assistance. In particular, it recalls that the Committee adopted, in November 2005, a Format for the Voluntary Notification of Specific Technical Assistance Needs and Responses G/TBT/16. The Report also notes that the use of “good practices” is essential to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of technical assistance. For instance, it is important that technical assistance is provided in a timely manner and that it is predictable and sustainable.
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Special and Differential Treatment: the Report encourages members to inform the Committee of special and differential treatment provided to developing country Members, including information on how they have taken into account special and differential treatment provisions in the preparation of technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures; and, to encourage developing country Members to undertake their own assessments of the utility and benefits of such special and differential treatment.
The full text of the Report is available here G/TBT/19. The three previous reviews of the Committee are available here (G/TBT/5, 9 and 13).
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Other issues discussed at the meeting
Delegations raised some 20 specific trade concerns in relation to the implementation and administration of the TBT Agreement. These will be summarized in document (G/TBT/M/40). The Committee also adopted its Fifth Annual Transitional Review mandated in paragraph 18 of the Protocol of Accession of the People’s Republic of China (to be circulated) as well as its 2006 Annual Report to the WTO’s Council for Trade in Goods (to be circulated).
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Some background information on TBT
The TBT Agreement covers a wide variety of measures that may be relevant to
achieving various regulatory policy objectives, such as protecting human
health and safety, or protecting the environment.
Essentially, the Agreement balances governments’ sovereign right to regulate
against a set of obligations that discipline their implementation of this
right. For instance, when governments regulate to achieve a given policy
objectives (e.g. the prevention of deceptive practices) such regulations
should not, when implemented, unnecessarily restrict trade, or be
discriminatory.
The Agreement also encourages the use of international standards, guidelines
or recommendations where they exist, and it has detailed provisions aimed at
increasing transparency.
Why a Triennial Review?
Article 15.4 of the TBT Agreement instructs members to review, every three years, the
implementation and operation of the Agreement.
What is Good regulatory practice? It is, essentially, about the
practical implementation, at the domestic level, of all provisions contained
in the TBT Agreement.
What is transparency in the TBT context? Transparency aims at
facilitating access to information on domestic regulatory processes and
Members are, inter alia, obliged to notify new or changed measures when
these are not based on a relevant international standard, and, when they may
have a significant effect on trade (such notifications can be found
here). Members also have the obligation to establish
an enquiry point to respond to reasonable enquiries and provide relevant
documentation. A list of TBT enquiry points can be found
here. The TBT Committee holds regular
meetings of persons responsible for information exchange (for instance
enquiry points and notifications) in Geneva. The latest such meeting was
held in November 2004
Annex 2 of G/TBT/M/34 and the next will be held in 2007.
What is conformity assessment? It refers to the part of the TBT
Agreement which deals, inter alia, with procedures used to determine that
relevant requirements in technical regulations or standards are fulfilled.
Acta de la reunión
(publicada como documento de carácter reservado y posteriormente puesta
en distribución general de conformidad con los
procedimientos para la distribución y la supresión del carácter
reservado de los documentos de la OMC).