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The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)
The TBT Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) aims to ensure that technical regulations, standards, and conformity assessment procedures are non-discriminatory and do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade. At the same time, it recognises WTO members' right to implement measures to achieve legitimate policy objectives, such as the protection of human health and safety, or protection of the environment. The TBT Agreement strongly encourages members to base their measures on international standards as a means to facilitate trade. Through its transparency provisions, it also aims to create a predictable trading environment.
Annex 3 of the TBT Agreement is the Code of Good Practice for the Preparation, Adoption and Application of Standards, also known as the TBT Code of Good Practice. WTO Members are required to ensure that their central governmental standardizing bodies accept and comply with this Code of Good Practice and take reasonable measures to ensure that local government, non-governmental and regional standardizing bodies also accept and comply. The Code contains a number of standards-related notification requirements, namely regarding the acceptance of (or withdrawal from) the Code and the publication/availability of work programmes.
Further information on the TBT Agreement.
Notifications from standardizing bodies under the TBT Code of Good Practice
This gateway provides information on the standardizing bodies that have accepted the TBT Code of Good Practice as well as their work programmes.
Standardizing bodies should use the forms available on this webpage to submit notifications regarding their acceptance of the TBT Code of Good Practice (Form A) or their withdrawal (Form B). Form C should be used to indicate the existence and location of work programmes, including how and where they can be obtained, preferably through a direct link to a website. Alternatively, standardizing bodies can submit an electronic copy of their work programme in pdf format to be made available through this Gateway.
All forms and work programmes as well as any related queries should be sent to tbtcode@iso.org.
Disclaimer
Submissions on the "acceptance" of, or "withdrawal" from, the WTO TBT Code of Good Practice, as well as notifications of "Work Programmes", are made solely under the responsibility of those making such submissions and notifications. Their inclusion in the WTO ISO Standards Information Gateway is not subject to any assessment by the ISO Central Secretariat nor by the WTO Secretariat as to their compliance with the WTO TBT Code of Good Practice, or their legal status under the WTO TBT Agreement. The ISO Central Secretariat and the WTO Secretariat are not responsible for any statements or declarations made concerning these documents.
This information contained in this gateway is without prejudice to the positions of WTO Members or to their rights and obligations under the WTO. References to geographical or other territories and groupings are based solely on terms provided to the WTO Secretariat by WTO Members and Observers or terms used by relevant international organizations. The use of such terms on this site and in the materials contained therein does not constitute or imply an expression of opinion by the WTO Secretariat concerning the status of any country or territory, or the delimitation of its frontiers, or sovereignty.