Implementation of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) remains a priority for APEC economies. Within the WTO TBT Committee, consideration of specific trade concerns (STC), or issues that one WTO member has with the regulatory measures of another member, have grown each year. In 1995, the WTO received 365 notifications under the TBT Agreement; by 2021, that figure had grown more than tenfold to 3,966. Implementation of the TBT Agreement has led to disputes, as well. Fifty-seven WTO disputes have cited the TBT Agreement in the request for consultations.

APEC economies recognize that their standards, technical regulations, and conformity assessment procedures remain a priority. In the 2020 RAASR Individual Action Plans, more economies cited regulatory improvement as an area for work than any other issue. Twelve APEC economies are pursuing work to improve regulatory quality, apply regulatory impact analysis, to apply good regulatory practices (GRP), and to analyze the very structure of their regulatory process. Thus, APEC must continue disseminating information on the benefits of high-level support for regulatory reform, especially when non-tariff barriers to trade and restrictions to investment became the forefront of market access issues.

This concept note seeks funding from the APEC Support Fund – General Fund. The project aims to improve implementation of the WTO TBT Agreement and regulatory quality in all economies—particularly developing economies.

Developing Human Capital: The project will boost trade officials’ knowledge of and familiarity with both the WTO TBT Agreement and other economies’ FTA chapters. This will contribute to higher quality technical regulations and greater consistency with international obligations. Innovative obligations can be incorporated into new FTAs.

Integration into the Global Economy: WTO-inconsistent technical regulations have the ability to cut off an economies from the rest of the global economy by imposing requirements that others, including APEC economies, are unable to fulfill. This project seeks to reduce trade barriers and boost overall trade.

This project is intended to strengthen the ability of negotiators and regulators in all economies—and particularly those in developing economies—to understand and adhere to the obligations in the TBT Agreement. In the 2020 RAASR survey, 12 economies.

identified aspects of regulatory improvement as a priority. Nine of these 12 were developing economies.   By enhancing the ability of negotiators and regulators to understand and apply the TBT Agreement, economies will be able to produce higher quality regulations that fulfil legitimate public policy objectives, while not creating unnecessary barriers to trade.

The TBT Agreement contains rules that help ensure that standards-related measures serve legitimate objectives, are transparent, and do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade. If implementation can be improved, we should see fewer trade disputes and increased trade between economies. Regulations that have been developed consistently with the TBT Agreement will have greater stakeholder acceptance because more parties were given an opportunity to consider the measure and submit comments. Implementing the measure will be easier because operational problems will have already been identified and addressed.  If international (rather than economy-specific standards were used in the technical regulation, then it will be easier for all economies to produce goods that are consistent with the standard. This increased trade would lead to greater prosperity and lower costs.