APEC Project Database

Project Title

Reducing Barriers Posed by Labeling Requirements

Project Year

2026

Project Number

SCSC_106_2026A

Project Session

Session 1

Project Type

Standard

Project Status

Project in Implementation

Project No.

SCSC_106_2026A

Project Title

Reducing Barriers Posed by Labeling Requirements

Project Status

Project in Implementation

Fund Account

APEC Support Fund

Sub-fund

ASF: Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific and Global Value Chains (FTAAP and GVCs)

Project Year

2026

Project Session

Session 1

APEC Funding

95,985

Co-funding Amount

Total Project Value

95,985

Sponsoring Forum

Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance (SCSC)

Topics

Trade Facilitation

Committee

Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI)

Other Fora Involved

Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved

Proposing Economy(ies)

United States

Co-Sponsoring Economies

Japan; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Peru; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; Viet Nam

Expected Start Date

01/10/2026

Expected Completion Date

31/12/2027

Project Proponent Name 1

Kent Shigetomi

Job Title 1

Director

Organization 1

Office of the US Trade Representative

Telephone 1

+12023959459

Email 1

Kent_Shigetomi@ustr.eop.gov

Project Proponent Name 2

Not Applicable

Job Title 2

Not Applicable

Organization 2

Not Applicable

Telephone 2

Not Applicable

Email 2

Not Applicable

Declaration

Kent Shigetomi

Project Summary

Product labels convey important information about a product, such as nutritional value, conformity with standards or technical requirements, and safety information. Consumers rely on them for relevant information and regulators use them to protect health and safety. When labeling requirements differ between economies, suppliers must adapt by developing different labels, using stickers relevant to that particular market, or abandon the market as too costly. When producers, especially small ones, give up on a market, it deprives consumers of choice. The WTO TBT Agreement requires economies to ensure that regulations do not impose an unnecessary obstacle to trade and allows economies to apply measures to protect human health and safety.

This workshop will explore how economies can achieve policy goals, including through the adoption of relevant international standards, without impeding trade. We will explore how suppliers decide whether to absorb the costs associated with regulatory compliance or exit the market.

Relevance

Region

Suppliers generally accept that products are modified to be used in different economies. Language, voltage, and some elements of product design (e.g., which side of the car the steering wheel is placed) are treated as normal modifications. However, difficulties arise when labeling requirements become unnecessarily burdensome, to the point of making it difficult for products to be sold in a particular market. For example, tailoring a product to add a label may be cost-prohibitive. In addition, labeling requirements that do not account for commercial concerns or allow for sufficient time for businesses to adapt could pose market barriers. At least two disputes in the WTO have been related to labeling. Both of these cases dealt with the implementation of the WTO TBT Agreement, which highlights the connection between product labeling and market access. The more that economies understand the WTO obligations related to labeling and domestic reasons for certain practices, the less chance we have for trade irritants. We will explore the WTO TBT obligations and explore how they can be applied to avoid trade irritants.

Eligibility and Fund Priorities

This concept note seeks funding under the Sub-Fund on Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific and Global Value Chains (GVC). Global value chains represent the distribution of production across various actors to collectively manufacture a finished good. When the good is completed, it moves from the supplier to the consumer. Labeling captures key aspects of the product, including origin, ingredients, and consistency with standards or regulations. Consumer use labels to make decisions. When labeling poses a market access hurdle, it threatens all of the actors involved in the value chain because their economic livelihood depends on sales of the product. In effect, labeling represents the last link in a global value chain.

Capacity Building

Developing economies may have organizational or technical challenges that make it difficult to develop regulations that are consistent with the WTO TBT Agreement. For example, regulators may be unaware of their obligations under the TBT Agreement. They may provide insufficient time to provide comments on proposed measures, or they may be unaware of how to apply the TBT Agreement. The project will provide information on the Agreement’s obligations so that participants can develop regulations in an open and transparent manner. By sharing information on how other economies have addresses similar situations, we may avoid future market disruptions.

Objectives

The TBT Agreement prohibits technical regulations that create unnecessary obstacles to trade. It allows members to apply measures to achieve legitimate policy objectives. Problems arise when economies disagree on whether the measure is necessary or how the measure is implemented. Exporting economies may believe that the policy goal can be achieved in alternate ways, or that the requirement discriminates against foreign producers. Regulators in the importing economy may be unaware of their international trade obligations. We seek to examine labeling requirements that have sometimes been a challenge (e.g., stickering, and container size) to determine if less trade-restrictive solutions can be identified.

Alignment

Beneficiaries and Outputs

Output

1) Pre-Workshop Questionnaire

The project overseer will conduct an online, pre-workshop questionnaire that will aim to determine the extent to which economies have experienced trade issues related to labeling requirements in other markets. This will help to identify common themes that can serve as building blocks for the workshop. The results can also help identify speakers for the workshop. We do not intend to produce any written output of the survey results.

2) Workshop

The main focus of the project is to organize and stage a two-day in-person workshop (full-days) in Viet Nam, on the margins of SOM 3 (August 2027). The workshop will include sessions on various issues related to labeling requirements, such as conformity with standards and technical regulations, nutritional information, obligations in trade agreements, and dispute settlement cases. The workshop will focus on the differences between economies and how these differences may affect trade.

DRAFT AGENDA DAY 1

Obligations Under the WTO TBT Agreement

9:00 – 9:45 AM The TBT Agreement/ WTO Secretariat

9:45 – 10:30 AM WTO Disputes Related to Labeling Issues; Australia Plain Packaging, Cntry of Origin Labeling

10:30 – 10:45 AM Questions and Answers

10:45 – 11:00 AM Coffee Break

Emerging Issues Related to Labeling

11:00 – 11:45 AM Halal Labeling

11:45 – 12:30 PM Product Traceability

12:30 – 2:00 PM Lunch Break

Views of the Private Sector

2:00 – 3:00 PM Ability of Private Sector to Conform

3:00 – 4:00 PM Challenges faced by Economies

4:00 – 4:30 PM Questions and Answers

DAY 2

Perspective from Exporting Economies

9:00 – 11:30 AM Group of Economies to Present on how they have adjusted to the labeling requirements in foreign markets

11:30 – 11:45 AM Coffee Break

Issues Related to Specific Products

11:45 – 1:00 PM Perspectives of how labeling affects specific industries Cosmetics, Medical Products

1:00 – 2:30 PM Lunch Break

Wrap up and Tools to Address Concerns

2:30 – 4:00 PM Alternatives to Economy-Specific Requirements/ Small Group Exercise

An examination of other tools economies can employ to address their traceability concerns

4:00 – 5:00 PM Summary and Conclusions

Post-event Survey will be conducted in the last session, Summary and Conclusions

3) Project Summary Report

An electronic report of minimum of 4 pages (excluding annexes) that will be available to all economies will be developed at the end of the workshop. It will contain the executive summary, information on the experts/speakers involved, key discussions based on experts/speakers’ materials/presentations and questions-and-answer session, key recommendations, conclusion and annexes which may include agenda, pre-event assessment/post-workshop survey results and other relevant information as appropriate. These materials will be e-mailed to participants and will be made available in the APEC project database and Meeting Document Database. It is not expected to be an official APEC publication. Recommendations for future work will be prepared as part of the report guided by the discussions/results of the workshop. The project overseer will also survey and compile feedback from participants, especially input related to possible areas for future capacity-building activities.

Outcome

1) One key outcome of this project is the enhanced ability of trade and regulatory officials to understand the TBT- related obligations in multilateral and regional trade agreements related to labeling and how they function.

Based on this analysis, they may seek to incorporate similar measures in their own negotiations. Regulators will be able to better understand their obligations in the TBT Agreement and FTA TBT chapters. By doing so, they will be able to develop standards, technical regulations, and conformity assessment procedures that achieve the intended public policy outcomes, while not erecting unnecessary barriers to trade. This, in turn, should lead to expanded trade between APEC economies, since there will be fewer barriers to trade.

2) Information on WTO and FTA jurisprudence will enhance regulators’ understanding of how their actions can affect international trade and what any WTO-related effects might be.

3) We aim to bridge the divide between trade officials and regulators. Product regulators will be able to share their policy goals to trade officials. Trade officials will be able to explain their obligations related to labeling requirements.

Beneficiaries

This project has two direct beneficiaries. The first are regulators in APEC economies who will be better equipped to develop and implement regulations that do not impede trade. This will allow economies to achieve their policy objectives and avoid trade disputes. The second group of beneficiaries are suppliers and consumers. Suppliers will be able to sell their products in more markets and consumers will have increased access to new, cheaper, or more innovative products.

Dissemination

We will produce a project summary report that will be submitted to the APEC Secretariat for distribution to the SCSC. The project summary will also be presented in PowerPoint form to the SCSC at its next in-person meeting following the workshop. No video or audio summary or compilation are planned.

These materials will be e-mailed to participants and will be made available on the APEC website. They are is intended to serve as a written summary of the event, not as an APEC publication. They will be submitted for inclusion in the MMDB. The results of the pre-workshop survey will be included in the final project summary report and also shared with the SCSC. The survey results will primarily be used to shape the workshop agenda by identifying sectors of interest.

Gender

Please see Project Proposal in Supporting Documents folder.

Work Plan

Please see Concept Note in Supporting Documents folder.

Risks

Please see Concept Note in Supporting Documents folder.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Please see Concept Note in Supporting Documents folder.

Linkages

Trade Negotiators and Regulators: This workshop is intended to enhance expertise with the TBT Agreement, so trade negotiators of TBT chapters and government regulators are the ideal participants. We will use the WTO TBT Agreement as the starting point of discussion, so officials from government agencies should have a basic understanding of the rulemaking procedures in their economy and the TBT Agreement.

Private Sector and Civil Society: Trade policy should be developed through a process that provides for meaningful consultation with the public. Requirements related to labeling have adirect impact on manufacturers and traders. As a result, representatives of organizations that regularly review and provide input on trade measures are ideal participants.

Representatives of international organizations: Other multilateral organizations have conducted important work on the application of the TBT Agreement. An official from the WTO Secretariat would be an obvious speaker.

Representatives of Other APEC Groups: The application of the TBT Agreement has been discussed in other APEC groups. The Economic Committee has responsibility with the SCSC to organize the annual conference on GRP and has conducted GRP work on its own. Peru recently conducted an analysis of WTO TBT and SPS notifications for the CTI, so that committee is likely to be interested in this work. Labeling affects market access for goods, so several other APEC groups are likely to share an interest. The CTI and MAG would clearly be interested in subjects related to market access. The SMEWG is also likely to be interested because regulations may place a disproportionate burden on small businesses.

Sustainability

The WTO TBT Agreement establishes rules on developing, adopting, and applying voluntary product standards and mandatory technical regulations as well as conformity assessment procedures (such as testing or certification) used to determine whether a particular product meets such standards or regulations. These obligations have a direct relationship to product labeling requirements because such requirements may require foreign producers to tailor their product to satisfy the importing economy's requirements. In this sense, a stronger understanding of the international obligations will hopefully lead to requirements that do not impede trade.

In addition, understanding the WTO dispute settlement cases related to labeling (e.g., tobacco plain packaging) will also help to avoid measures that impede trade.

Direct Labour

Not Applicable.

Are there any supporting document attached?

Yes

Project No.
Project Title
Project Status
Fund Account
Sub-fund
Project Year
Project Session
APEC Funding
Co-funding Amount
Total Project Value
Sponsoring Forum
Topics
Committee
Other Fora Involved
Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved
Proposing Economy(ies)
Co-Sponsoring Economies
Expected Start Date
Expected Completion Date
Project Proponent Name 1
Job Title 1
Organization 1
Telephone 1
Email 1
Project Proponent Name 2
Job Title 2
Organization 2
Telephone 2
Email 2
Declaration
Project Summary
Relevance
Objectives
Alignment
Beneficiaries and Outputs
Dissemination
Gender
Work Plan
Risks
Monitoring and Evaluation
Linkages
Sustainability
Direct Labour
Are there any supporting document attached?
hdFldAdmin
Project Number
Previous Fora
Secretariat Comments
Reprogramming Notes
Consolidated QAF
Endorsement By Fora
PD Sign Off
Batch
Forum Priority
Committee Ranking Category
Committee Priority
PDM Priority
Priority Within Funding Category
Monitoring Report Received
Completion Report Received
PMU Field 1
PMU Field 2
PMU Field 3
On Behalf Of
Proposal Status
Originating Sub-Forum
Approval Status
Attachments

Content Type: Standard Proposal