The WTO agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade - the path to free world trade

There is a general view that differing standards, technical regulations and costly conformity assessment requirements we major obstacles to trade. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) was negotiated with a view to minimise these kinds of technical trade barriers. The Agreement, while recognising the need for taking measures to ensure the quality of products, for the protection of human health and safety or the environment or for the prevention, of deceptive practices, provides disciplines to ensure that technical regulations, standards and procedures for assessment of conformity do not create unnecessary trade barriers. It chooses the principles of non-discrimination, avoidance of unnecessary obstacles to trade, harmonisation, equivalence, mutual recognition and transparency. The WTO TBT Committee conducted its First Triennial Review of the Agreement in 1997 and reiterated the importance of the prevention and elimination of technical barriers to trade and the essential role of the Agreement in furthering these objectives. It reiterated the important contribution that international standards can make to improve efficiency of production, to facilitate the conduct of international trade, and to the transfer of technology fi-om developed to developing countries. As we move towards a world of global trade, the key challenge will be to strengthen the global rules and structures embodied in the multilateral system, including a coherent development of metrological infrastructures.