RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE G/TBT/W/8
27June1995
ORGANIZATION(95-1749)
Committee onTechnical Barriers toTrade Original: English
COMMUNICATION FROM THE UNITED STATES
Thefollowing Communication, dated 22June1995, concerning theAnnual Review ofthe
Implementation andOperation oftheWTO TBTAgreement under Article 15.3, hasbeenreceived
from thedelegation oftheUnited States withtherequest thatitbecirculated toMembers ofthe
Committee.
_______________
Article 15.3oftheAgreement onTechnical Barriers toTrade requires theCommittee to
review annually theimplementation andoperation oftheAgreement. Inthelightofthe
experience oftheTokyo Round Committee inimplementing thisprovision, andgiven thelarge
increase inmembership oftheCommittee, theUnited States believes itwould beuseful to
streamline thedatacompiled forpurposes ofconducting thisreview. (TBT/38/Rev.1 contains the
most recent Annual Review).
TheUnited States proposes thefollowing elements asessential forpurposes ofthe
Annual Review:
(a) Composition oftheCommittee
(Inaddition totheWTO Members, thisincludes anindication oftheCommittee 's
Chairperson andVice-Chairperson andobservers);
(b) Implementation andAdministration
(alisting ofMembers, dateofentry intoforce oftheAgreement, andareference tothe
document containing theMember 'sstatement onimplementation);
(c) Notifications
(information onthetotalnumber ofnotifications made todate; alisting, byMember, of
notifications made forthecurrent andprevious period; asummary number of
notifications made byArticle; dataontheobservation oftherecommended comment
period byMember);
(d) Transparency
(reference toaseparate document which compiles, byMember, alistofthepublications
usedtoannounce work isproceeding ondrafttechnical regulations andconformity
assessment procedures, andthose inwhich thefinaltextsarepublished; reference tothe
document containing thelistofcurrent enquiry points);
./.G/TBT/W/8
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(e) Technical Assistance
(summary ofinformation provided byMembers, observers orinternational organizations
onactivities undertaken during theperiod tosupport implementation oftheAgreement);
(f) Dispute Settlement
(summary information ondisputes relating totheprovisions oftheAgreement).
TheUnited States proposes thatconsideration begiven bytheCommittee toconducting its
firstAnnual Review onthebasis ofthese essential dataelements, andgivefurther consideration in
thefuture toanyadditional information thatmight beprovided forsubsequent reviews.