The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade: Is it Working for Business?

International differences in technical requirements, product standards and conformity assessment procedures create major barriers to international trade. The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade is intended to reduce the impact of these differences on trade. The major emphasis has been on promoting the convergence of national requirements through mutual notifications. This is not likely to be very effective since governments and businesses have major commitments to existing requirements and procedures. A more effective approach would be to promote international acceptance of a rebuttable presumption that the various sets of national requirements, although different, provide equivalent levels of protection.