Accreditation and WTO requirements-International linkage

Accreditation and WTO requirements

WTO TBT Agreement

Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)

• TBT:  Barriers to trade created by technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures when they are established for national trade protection reasons.
• TBT became a prominent means of trade protection when the WTO concentrated on reducing tariff and quantitative restrictions to trade.
• Tariff and quantitative restrictions on imports were replaced with a multitude of national standards and regulations which had the primary intent of:
• Creating barriers to market entry for foreign producers; and
• restricting market access to domestic producers

• Established with the main objective of ensuring that
  • technical regulations;
  • Standards; and
  • Conformity assessment procedures,
•  Do not create unnecessary obstacles to international trade.
• WTO members are required to comply with the agreement and all of its requirements.

Technical Regulations Why Mandatory?

• Recognized that no country should be prevented from taking legitimate measures necessary to ensure the following:
• Human or animal health and safety
• Environmental protection;
• National security;
• Regulatory measures are permitted as long as they do not constitute a “means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between countries where the same conditions prevail” or where they represent a “disguised restriction to international trade”.

What are the principles of WTO agreements?

TBT Principles	Technical regulations	Conformity assessment procedures	Standards
Non-discrimination	✔	✔	✔
Avoidance of unnecessary obstacles to trade	✔	✔	✔
Harmonization	✔	✔	✔

Results of agreements/Arrangements