STANDARDS ANDTRADE. Eileen Hill Team Leader for Standards International Trade Administration U.S. Department of Commerce

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1 STANDARDS ANDTRADE Eileen Hill Team Leader for Standards International Trade Administration U.S. Department of Commerce D13 Workshop on Smart Textiles June 26,

2 Standards Related Trade Challenges #1 trade barrier; tools for addressing them: WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade Free Trade Agreements; Ongoing negotiations/t-tip U.S. Commercial Dialogues Brazil, China, India, Canada, Mexico, North American Leaders Summit Regional Groups (APEC, ASEAN) USG Resources and Opportunities (Standards Alliance, MDCP, ITA country and industry specialists, ITACs) Monitoring Standards Development (Standards Alert) 2

3 Standards Trade Barriers Overly prescriptive or unique standards Duplicative or burdensome testing or inspection procedures Difficulty in knowing how to comply with mandatory requirements Labeling requirements that are not meaningful or are misleading Concerns about release of proprietary information during testing Product bans (not justified by science; may be discriminatory) 3

4 WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade Concluded in 1994; applies to all 161 WTO Members Aims to ensure that technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures do not constitute unnecessary barriers to international trade Recognizes the right of Members to take regulatory measures to achieve legitimate objectives Requires use of relevant international standards in regulation where they exist 4

5 WTO COMMITTEE ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE: DECISION OF THE COMMITTEE ON PRINCIPLES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS, GUIDES AND RECOMMENDATIONS (2002) Transparency Openness Impartiality and Consensus Effectiveness and Relevance Coherence Development Dimension

6 U.S. Free Trade Agreements 14 FTAs cover 20 countries (Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Jordon, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Oman, Panama, Peru, Singapore) Only Israel FTA, the first U.S. FTA, is lacking TBT obligations FTA provisions go beyond WTO TBT provisions 6

7 U.S. Free Trade Agreements Trans Pacific Partnership has annexes addressing specific sectoral issues, including medical devices; will bethefirst U.S. FTA to include a chapter on regulatory coherence T-TIP also will seek to address sector-specific regulatory cooperation 7

8 Standards in U.S. Commercial Dialogues U.S. Commercial Dialogues Brazil, China, India, Canada, Mexico, North American Leaders Summit Activities in each vary; depends on mutual interests Brazil/June 2015 Memorandum of Intent China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade/JCCT India Strategic Commercial Dialogue/S&CD Canada/Regulatory Cooperation Council Mexico/ High-Level Regulatory Cooperation Council North American Leaders Summit Trilateral Regulatory Cooperation 8

9 Regional Groups: APEC 21 member economies, including the United States, China, Russia, and Australia Accounts for 55 percent of global GDP, purchases 58 percent of U.S. goods exports, and comprises a market of 2.7 billion customers 9

10 Regional Groups: APEC APEC Subcommittee on Standards and Conformance U.S. plays a leadership role; U.S. private sector is a strong partner in this work Focus is on good regulatory practice in specific areas and initiating early regional engagement in emerging technology areas Current areas covered include food, green building, wine, electric vehicles, ICT energy efficiency, toys, and solar 10

11 Regional Groups: ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations founded Members: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam 11

12 Regional Groups: ASEAN U.S. DOC carries out standards cooperative work under the ASEAN Consultative Committee on Standards and Quality Priority sectors: medical devices, building products, dietary supplements, food safety, green chemistry, electrical and electronic goods, and information and communications technology (ICT) products This work helps ensure that U.S. products have access to the ASEAN regional market 12

13 USG Resources: Standards Alliance, MDCP, ITACs The Standards Alliance supports implementation of WTO TBT commitments in ten partner countries/regions; public-private partnership (ANSI, USTR, and USAID); runs through 2018 Market Development Cooperator Programgrants support private sector projects to maintain U.S. competitiveness; used by U.S. standards groups to tackle standards issues Industry Technical Advisory Committees allow U.S. stakeholders to provide direct input to USTR and ITA on trade policy; ITAC 13 (Textiles and Clothing); ITAC 16 (Standards and TBT)

14 USG Resources: Standards Alert ITA Service to alert stakeholders to proposals for international standards development so they can protect their market access; developed in partnership with ANSI Goal is to head off trade barriers by increasing U.S. company participation in developing new international standards

15 USG Resources: ITA Specialists Working on Standards Industry & Analysis/Industry Offices Analysts on key manufacturing and service industries; lead on sector and industry specific standards issues and initiatives (APEC, ASEAN, under bilateral commercial dialogues; T-TIP sector annexes); Top Markets Reports Enforcement & Compliance/Trade Agreement Negotiation and Compliance Key resource for ensuring that trading partners live up to obligations under trade agreements (WTO, FTAs); T-TIP negotiations on TBT Global Markets/Commercial Service Country specialists on all trading partners; manage bilateral commercial dialogues; Commercial Service network: 100+ U.S. Export Assistance Centers in every state; Standards Attachés (Brussels, Beijing, Mexico city, Sao Paolo, Brazil) and Locally Employed Staff in Commercial Sections at U.S. Embassies; Country Commercial Guides 15