Overview of The WTO

 Objective of presentation

 WTO: The Beginnings

 Growth in Trade Underway

 A New Multilateral Organization

 The WTO: what is it?

 How does the WTO function?

 Principles of the Trading System

 Provisions for developing countries

 Progressing by packages

 The Round to end all rounds

 The WTO Agreement

 Liberalising trade in goods

 Textiles - back in the mainstream

 Agriculture: fairer markets for all

 Trade remedies

 Standards and procedures

 Administrative procedures

 Services: rules for growth and investment

 Services: the key rules

 Services: Better Access to Markets

 Intellectual Property: protection and enforcement of rights

 TRIPS: what does it cover?

 Settling Disputes: the heart of the system

 Meetings of Ministers

  Singapore Ministerial

 Geneva and Seattle Ministerials

 Doha Ministerial Meeting

 Cancun Ministerial Meeting

 Recent Developments

Standards and procedures

Technical barriers to trade

Access to markets can also be impeded through the use of technical standards. A number of agreements deal with various technical, bureaucratic or legal issues that could create hindrances to trade.

• Standards and technical regulations

Technical regulations and industrial standards are important, but they vary from country to country. Having too many different standards makes life difficult for producers and exporters. If the standards are set arbitrarily, they could be used as disguised protection. The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade tries to ensure that technical regulations, standards, and conformity assessment procedures do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade.
• Right to adopt standards

However, the agreement recognizes countries' rights to adopt the standards they consider appropriate. This may be for human, animal or plant life or health, for the protection of the environment or to meet other consumer interests. Moreover, members are not prevented from taking measures necessary to ensure their standards are met. In order to prevent too much diversity, the agreement encourages countries to use international standards where these exist. They can also employ other mechanisms such as equivalence and mutual recognition of the standards of others.

Sanitary and phytosanitary measures

Sanitary and phytosanitary measures are measures taken to protect human, animal or plant life from risks arising from additives or disease-causing organisms in food.  They are also used to protect a country from the damage caused by the spread of pests.  The Agreement on the Implementation of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures applies to all such measures which may, directly or indirectly, affect international trade.

• Role for scientific evidence

Governments of course have the right to take SPS measures. However, they have to ensure that these measures do not arbitrarily or unjustifiably discriminate between countries where the same conditions prevail. Moreover, SPS measures must not be applied in a manner that would constitute a disguised restriction on international trade.  They must be based on scientific evidence. As in the case of the Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement, governments are encouraged to base their measures on international standards, guidelines and recommendations whenever possible.