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WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade


The National Center for Standards and Certification Information (NCSCI), Office of Standards Services, serves as the U.S. inquiry point under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). One of the major provisions of the TBT Agreement is notification of proposed technical regulations which significantly affect trade. Each WTO member is required to report to the WTO Secretariat in Geneva, proposed central government regulations and provide a 60 day comment period to allow other WTO members to review and comment on the proposal.

NCSCI receives copies of the one page notifications, in English, which include the country notifying, product covered, a brief description of the regulation and final date for comments. Each notification is assigned a number by the WTO Secretariat for identification purposes, and disseminated by NCSCI staff to U.S. industry, federal agencies and interested persons. NCSCI obtains the full text of the proposed foreign technical regulations and makes them available for review and comment at no charge.

Get updates on Technical Regulation changes (TBT Notifications) by registering for the 'Notify U.S.' email service:
at http://www.nist.gov/notifyus/ .

For additional information on the TBT Agreement, inquiry point activities or notifications contact:

National Center for Standards and Certification Information
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive, MS 2160
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-2160
Tel:  (301) 975-4040
Fax:  (301) 926-1559
E-mail:  ncsci@nist.gov
NCSCI Request Form


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For technical questions concerning the National Center for Standards and Certification Information, contact us:

NCSCI, Global Standards and Information Group, NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, MS 2160, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-2160
Phone: (301) 975-4040, Fax: (301) 926-1559, Email: ncsci@nist.gov

Date created: January 02, 1999
Last updated: March 7, 2006

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