WTO

Overcoming technical barriers to trade

FIEO organized an interactive session on the Role of Technical Barriers to Trade under WTO for the benefit of Indian exporters. The session was chaired by Mr T.S. Ahluwalia, Member, Managing Committee, FIEO. Mr Rahul Kumar, Head (IR & TI Services), Bureau of Indian Standards, Mr J. Roy Chowdhury, Scientist (9F), Bureau of Indian Standards, and Mr Vinod Pal, Director, Services, FIEO, were present. The session was attended by select SMEs engaged in international trade. In his opening remarks Mr Ahluwalia gave general information about WTO and how it is helping both developed and developing countries in promoting international trade. He explained about different kinds of trade barriers which are being used by world economies to protect their domestic industry and restrict the import of products which hamper their domestic industry. He felt this was a very important and useful topic for exporters to understand. Mr Rahul Kumar briefed about the various standards and regulations being adopted by other countries to maintain and check the high quality standards of imports. He informed about the main objectives of WTO, different trade barriers, technical barriers, technical agreements, technical regulations and standards being adopted by the developed countries. He also explained in detail about the main principles of the development of standards, harmonization principles and information concerning technical barriers. He highlighted the role of BIS in developing technical standards for a large number of industrial goods in the country. Mr Chowdhury highlighted the role of BIS as an Enquiry Point under the TBT Agreement. He explained about information and inputs being provided by BIS on standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures with regard to the TBT Agreement. He spoke about trade concerns and how to rectify or take up grievances to the WTO forum, in case of any complaint. He also informed about specific trade concerns raised by various countries with WTO since its inceptions. There was a Q&A in which the representatives of the companies raised a number of issues/clarifications concerning concepts and specific technical barriers adopted by other countries, the specific role of BIS in promotion of standards, details about trade disputes by other countries, settlement mechanisms etc.