What are Technical Barriers to Trade?
Technical barriers to trade generally result from the preparation, adoption and application of different technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures. If a producer in country A wants to export to country B, he will be obliged to satisfy the technical requirements that apply in country B, with all the financial consequences this entails. Differences between one country and another in their technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures may have legitimate origins such as differences in local tastes or levels of income, as well as geographical or other factors. For example, countries with areas prone to earthquakes might have stricter requirements for building products; others, facing serious air-pollution problems might want to impose lower tolerable levels of automobile emissions. High levels of per capita income in relatively rich countries result in higher demand for high-quality and safe products.
Technical regulations and standards set out specific characteristics of a product — such as its size, shape, design, functions and performance, or the way it is labelled or packaged before it is put on sale. In certain cases, the way a product is produced can affect these characteristics, and it may then prove more appropriate to draft technical regulations and standards in terms of a product's process and production methods rather than its characteristics per se. The TBT Agreement makes allowance for both approaches in the way it defines technical regulations and standards.
TBT Document Downloads
http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/ursum_e.htm#dAgreement
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