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Meeting of the WTO TBT Inquiry Points of the Americas October 2012
by MaryAnn Hogan October 15, 2012
NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology of the United States), Inmetro (Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology of Brazil), and SCC (Standards Council of Canada) recently held the:
First Meeting of the Inquiry Points of the Americas under the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO TBT)
- Theme: “Strengthening Mutual Ties to Promote Business and Facilitate Trade in the Region”
- Attendees: WTO TBT officials from 35 countries, representatives from the WTO, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), USAID, U.S. Commercial Service Brazil, and Brazilian and U.S. industries
- Where: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Dates: October 30 – November 1, 2012
- Sponsors: NIST, Inmetro, SCC, USAID, UL, the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, the Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro State, the Brazilian Association of the Chemical Industry, and the Brazilian Electrical and Electronics Industry Association.
Anticipated impacts of this training include (1) a gain in efficiency of trade among the regional countries; and (2) increased economic impact from expanded U.S. export trade with the Western Hemisphere regional markets and subsequently, added economic impact for U.S. exporters.
+Canada-Americas Trade-Related Technical Assistance (CATRTA) Countries Meeting Agenda
Note: CATRTA presentations are accessible in PDF from the links in the CATRTA meeting agenda above.
+Event Speakers and Session Leaders
+Economic Impact Study on the Value of WTO TBT Inquiry Points
+NIST Tech Beat: U.S., Brazil Publish Compliance Requirement Guides for Selected Industries
+ROOM DOCUMENT - 27-29 November 2012 WTO TBT Committee Meeting, Geneva, Switzerland on 28 November 2012
Submission by Brazil, Canada, and the United States
Continued Collaboration
The meeting participants agreed on the following as goals for continuing collaboration in the Americas:
+
To complement the important work of the WTO TBT Committee and the WTO
Secretariat in strengthening implementation of Western Hemisphere WTO
Member obligations under Article 10 of the WTO TBT Agreement through peer-to-peer exchanges.
+
To plan the establishment of a regional communications network among
the inquiry points of the Americas. Preliminary discussions at the
meeting proposed the use of easily available, free, web tools to
facilitate the network.
+ To plan the development of additional “Industry Guides”
-- a project first initiated between Brazil and the United States
involving the exchange of technical and regulatory compliance
information to facilitate trade in specific industry sectors.
+ To develop ideas for continuing focus in the region on educational and technical assistance projects.
+
To develop a best practices guide for WTO TBT inquiry points. The
guide will include data gathered from a pre-event survey of American
inquiry points and outcomes from discussions and focus groups convened
during the meeting.
For questions or additional information, please contact the USA WTO TBT Inquiry Point at NIST (Anne Meininger, anne.meininger@nist.gov).