Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the functioning of the notification procedure under the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement)

The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (the TBT Agreement) is one of the 13 multilateral agreements on trade in goods negotiated during the Uruguay Round. It entered into force in 1995 with the establishment of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It obliges all WTO Members to notify technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures for goods at a draft stage to the World Trade Organisation and gives the other WTO Members the possibility to comment on them.

The TBT notification procedure is an important element of the EU’s trade and industrial policy and contributes to the objectives to be achieved through the Europe 2020 strategy, in particular to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

The first objective of this report is to draw the attention of the European institutions and advisory bodies and of EU economic operators, including SMEs, to the opportunities the TBT notification procedure offers. Its second objective is to present the latest trends of this instrument by compiling an overview of the development of the procedure in recent years. Thirdly, the Commission seizes the opportunity this report gives to recommend concrete action to bring about further improvements.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)354: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:354:FIN

European Commission: SWD(2012)189: Statistics http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=SWD:2012:0189:FIN:EN:PDF

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