Q6 International standards Flashcards
What does mean international standards?
International standards are approved by a recognized body which is responsible for establishing rules, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods for worldwide use based on consensus. Compliance is not mandatory.
What are the six principles of the International standards?
International standards highlight the existence of Six Principles that guide the development of international standards: transparency; openness; impartiality and consensus; effectiveness and relevance; coherence and to address the concerns of developing countries.
What are the two WTO main agreements related to international standards?
Multilateral rules for trade in goods prescribed by the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade and on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures allocate a prominent role to international standards in shaping WTO Members’ rights and obligations. They encourage institutional cooperation with international standard setters and impose obligations on Members to monitor the activities of private standard setters.
Which is the purpose of the TBT and SPS?
On the one hand, SPS Agreement deals with food safety and animal and plant health and safety. On the other hand, TBT Agreement deals with product standards in general.
What is the relation between GATT and TBT?
The provisions of the GATT 1947 contained only a general reference to technical regulations and standards in Articles III, XI and XX (non-discrimination, proportionality, and provided a forum to discuss lower tariffs). The article XX GATT allowed to act on trade in order to protect human, animal or plant life or health, provided they do not discriminate or use this is as disguised protectionism.
When was signed the TBT Agreement and by who?
While the Tokyo Round in 1979, 32 GATT Contracting Parties signed the plurilateral Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). The (WTO) Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) provides that WTO Members recognize the important role that international standards can play in facilitating trade.
What is the definition of the Technical regulations and standards?
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.
However, there is a difference between a standard and a technical regulation. Standards mean voluntary aspect of regulation (nevertheless products, which don’t respect the norm, may be affected by the consumer’s choice who prefers products that meet local standards (quality or colour). Technical regulations (Art. 2.4) and conformity assessment procedures (Art. 5.4) are by nature mandatory (if an imported product does not fulfil the requirements of a technical regulation, it will not be allowed to be put on sale).
What is the main objective of the TBT?
The main objective of technical regulations and standards is protecting human safety, health, animal and plant life. (They include regulations intended to ensure that animal or plant species endangered by water, air and soil pollution do not become extinct).
Are WTO Members obliged to follow international standards?
TBT Agreement encouraged governments to use international standards as a basis for regulation, yet leaves a degree of flexibility with respect to the choice of standard, and the manner of its use (National regulations that require that motor vehicles be equipped with seat belts to minimise injury in the event of road accidents).
This discipline is strengthened by the presumption that a technical regulation does not create an unnecessary obstacle to international trade if it is prepared in accordance with the relevant international standards (Article 2.5 TBT). However, some international standards might not be effective or appropriate in certain cases and therefore, Members may decide not to use them.
Examples: “National regulations that require that motor vehicles be equipped with seat belts to minimise injury in the event of road accidents”. Another common example of regulations whose objective is the protection of human health is labelling of cigarettes to indicate that they are harmful to health.
Can WTO Member’s adopt domestic regulations and standards that would be more stringent or less stringent than relevant international standards?
According to article 2.4 and 5.4 of the TBT, Members shall use relevant international standards as a basis for technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures except when ineffective or inappropriate for policy objectives.
Article 2.5 provides the benefit of a presumption of not creating an unnecessary barrier to trade when requirements are in accordance with relevant international standards. In other words, there is a strong obligation to use relevant international standards as basis for regulation but balanced by ample policy space to Members on relevance, level and appropriateness.
When and why “SPS Agreement” was adopted?
The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the “SPS Agreement”) entered into force with the establishment of the WTO on 1 January 1995. The Agreement sets out the basic rules for food safety and animal and plant health standards.
What is the definition of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures?
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures concern:
- Protection of human and animal life or health from risks arising from additives, contaminants, toxins and disease causing organisms in their food.
- Protection of human life from plant- or animal-carried diseases.
- Protection of animal or plant life from the introduction of pests, diseases or disease-causing organisms.
- Protection of a country from damage caused by the entry or spread of pests.
What is the mean objective of the SPS?
What the SPS Agreement aims to achieve is a balance between the sovereign right of Members to provide the level of protection they deem appropriate but, at the same time, make sure that this right is not abused and result in unnecessary barriers to international trade.
SPS Agreement recognises members’ rights to take measures that may restrict trade. These measures must be: science-based; applied to the extent necessary; non-discriminatory. However, this right is not absolute, as they should not arbitrarily or unjustifiably discriminate between countries where identical or similar conditions prevail.
What is the relation between SPS and international standards?
WTO Member’s recalled that it is necessary to provide governments a right to ensure food safety and animal and plant health protection at the level they consider appropriate.
The purpose of Article 3 SPS is to promote and encourage the harmonization of the SPS measures of Members on as wide basis as possible, while recognizing and safeguarding, at the same time, the right of governments to enforce measures which are necessary to protect human life or health and based on scientific principles, without under no circumstance requiring them to change their appropriate level of protection.
Given the circumstances and the discretion granted to governments, Members are encouraged to use international standards, guidelines and recommendations, where they exist. When they do, they are unlikely to be challenged legally in WTO because there is a presumption of consistency with the WTO Agreement (Article 3.2 SPS).
What is three alternative scenarios available to WTO Members under SPS?
Firstly, under Article 3.2 of the SPS Agreement, a Member may decide to promulgate an SPS measure that conforms to an international standard. Such a measure would embody the international standard as a whole and, consequently, it enjoys the benefit of a presumption that it is consistent with the relevant provisions of the SPS Agreement and of the GATT 1994.
Secondly, under Article 3.1 of the SPS Agreement, a Member may choose to establish an SPS measure that is based on the existing relevant international standards, guidelines or recommendations. Such measure may adopt some, not necessarily all, of the elements of the international standard. The Member imposing the measure at issue does not benefit from the presumption granted by virtue of Article 3.2, but it is not penalized unless a complaining Member shows a prima facie inconsistency between the measure and Article 3.1 or any other relevant provision of the Agreement or the GATT. According to the case-law, there must be a very strong and close relationship between two things in order to be able to consider one as the basis for the other.
Thirdly, under Article 3.3 of the SPS Agreement, a Member may decide to set for itself a level of protection different from that implicit in the international standard, and to implement or embody that level of protection in a measure “not based on” the international standard, which may be higher than the one implied. In this case, the Member must ensure that its measure is consistent with the other relevant provisions of the SPS, which entails the need to base the measure on science, including having risk assessment in accordance with Article 5.2 and 5.2 of the SPS Agreement.
