Summary Information on activities of
UN/ECE Working Party on Technical
Harmonization and Standardization Policies (Working Party 6)
provided by Mr. Serguei Kouzmine, Secretary to UN/ECE Working Party in May, 2001 and updated by GTW Associates June, 2002
See also update August 2003 on UN/ECE Telecommunications Initiative
1.
The
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE)
is one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations. Its member
States, currently numbering 55, include not only western, central and
eastern Europe but also Israel, the United States and Canada. For a region
comprising several sub-regional economic groupings, the importance of
approximating technical regulations is obvious.
3. It is a major concern of the Working Party to encourage the development, adoption and application of harmonized technical regulations and standards, as well as conformity assessment operations, in member States of the UN/ECE region. The Working Party sessions provide a possibility for national and international public authorities and standardization bodies, as well as business operators, to come together to identify obstacles and seek solutions to problems. The working party maintains a public web site at http://www.unece.org/trade/tips/stdpol/index.htm
Major
recently initiated activities of the Working Party:
4.
Discussions at UN/ECE and other major fora show that differences in
standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures
constitute one of the major obstacles to international trade at present.
The Working Party is trying to find solutions to these problems through
promotion of wider use of international standards and through elaborating
of principles for harmonization of regulations and procedures.
5.
Thus,
in 1998-1999 the UN/ECE
made a survey of how major international standardizing organizations
monitor national transposition of their standards. According to replies
received, most of the organizations have no systems to monitor regularly
the implementation of the prepared and adopted standards (and it concerns
UN/ECE as well).
6.
This problem was brought to the attention of the UN/ECE member
states at a workshop on implementation and use of international
standards held in Geneva in May 1999. One of the proposals made at the
workshop was that national organizations which are members of
international and regional standardizing organizations and which vote for
the adoption of concrete standards or recommendations should consider
taking on obligations for providing information on whether (or to what
extent) those adopted standards etc. are transposed and used in their
countries. The program for this workshop is available at
7.
The summer (of 2001) this proposal was debated at the UN/ECE Committee
for Trade, Industry and Enterprise Development with a suggestion to be
adopted as a recommendation to UN/ECE member states. We believe that such
obligations would show the level of commitment of national organizations
and their members to the transposition of international standards as a
tool for facilitating international trade and would be of practical help
to companies which, for example,
often do not often know what international standards are used in a
particular country
8.
Another example of UN/ECE activities concerns harmonization. In
order to see how regulators could make a wider use of international
standards an ad hoc Team of Specialists on STandardization And Regulatory
Techniques (ASTART@ Team) was
established in 1999. The work of the Team was intended to provide guidance
for good regulatory practice and a mechanism for voluntary cooperation
between regulatory authorities, standardizers and industry, so that
legislation could make appropriate use of international standards.
9.
The “START Team” prepared a project which was tentatively called
"International Model for implementing good regulatory practice in the
preparation, adoption and application of technical regulations via the use
of international standards". The “Model”
is intended to provide a set of voluntary
principles and procedures for sectoral application which might be used by
countries wishing to harmonize their technical regulations.
10. The first draft of the “International Model” was presented at the November, 2000 session of the UN/ECE Working Party on Technical Harmonization and Standardization Policies (and also at the workshop organized on this occasion) held in Geneva where it was decided to further elaborate this “Model”. See http://www.unece.org/trade/tips/docs/wp6-00-3e.doc for information about the November, 2000 meetng
11. The purpose of the November 2000 Workshop on the role of standards and technical regulations in international trade was to look into the current situation and the problems faced by business operators; problems due to differences in technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures in different markets. Representatives of international, regional and national standardization organizations, regulatory authorities, conformity assessment bodies, trade and industry operators presented their views on how, on the one hand, to ensure health, safety and environmental protection, and, on the other, how to minimize technical barriers to trade; they also expressed their views on the need for harmonizing regulatory objectives and the possibility of using international standards in this context. The results of the workshop including "conclusions" is found in the report at http://www.unece.org/trade/tips/stdpol/docs/wp6-00-20e.doc
12. In February, 2001 Thomas Fischer, the Industry Cooperation on Standards and Conformity Assessment (ICSCA) representative at the November 2000 workshop reported on the UN/ECE activity to the ICSCA VII participants in Singapore. ICSCA VII passed the resolution below focusing on the portion of the November workshop conclusion found in Annex II in the document at :http://www.unece.org/trade/tips/stdpol/docs/wp6-00-20e.doc
Resolution
4.4 ICSCA VII Singapore February 2001
ICSCA thanks UN/ECE Working party 6 on Technical Harmonization and Standardization Policies for the opportunity to participate in its
November 7 Workshop and plenary discussion 6 & 8. ICSCA
endorses the November 7 Workshop conclusion:
ICSCA VII like WP6 Calls on UN/ECE Governments and international organizations:
· to
show their commitment to the facilitation of international trade by wider participation in international regulatory cooperation and
international standardization and effective implementation of the results;
· to encourage effective coordination and cooperation between Governments
and regulatory authorities and economic operators, and different international organizations and intergovernmental forums and to follow up
on practical proposals on regulatory cooperation, in particular
sectors/product areas;
· to involve, where appropriate, private-sector representatives in such activities thus promoting a public-private partnership approach.
ICSCA urges WP 6 to adopt this approach in its further work on an "International Model for Implementing Good Regulatory Practice for
the preparation adoption and application of technical regulations via the use
of International Standards."
By including ICSCA and other representatives of the private sector in its work program, UN/ECE can leverage the considerable knowledge and resources
within the private sector. This will help UN/ECE WP6 to speed up the
process, avoid duplication of work or competition with complementary
efforts in other fora and focus on only "value added"
proposals with strong support, rationale and market relevance.
13. The WP6 work program is not without controversy in United States policy circles according to a May 2001 letter to US Department of Commerce Secretary Donald Evans and Trade Representative Robert Zoelick, “this work is redundant to existing work and current obligations in the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee and could ultimately undermine these obligations and future work.
14. On 12 July 2001, the Executive Secretary of UNECE wrote to the Secretary General of ITU informing ITU about the "International Model" and about an OECD study and suggesting to ITU to explore a possibility of identifying an area where governments may see the need for technical harmonization (as a pilot project) and if principles of the International Model might be used in such regulatory cooperation.
15.
The "International Model" was formally discussed most
recently at
The US delegation noted their satisfaction with the voluntary character of the “Model” and at the same time voiced their concern that the “Model” might duplicate certain provisions of the WTO TBT agreement. It was further clarified that US regulations were based on a legislative framework and that regulatory authorities prepared technical regulations on the basis of federal laws; thus making it difficult for them to agree à priori on any new mechanisms or schemes as, for example, proposed in the “International Model”.
After
discussions at the session the
Working Party agreed :
(a) that there was a clear market need and an interest from Governments in further reduction of trade barriers and facilitation of market access
(b)
that the elaborated “International Model” would
contribute to the facilitation of market access by providing a voluntary
framework for establishing sectoral agreements between interested member
countries;
(c) to request the secretariat to include the text of the “International Model” (TRADE/WP.6/2001/8, TRADE/WP.6/2001/8/Corr. 1, and TRADE/WP.6/2001/8/Add. 1) in the set of UNECE Recommendations on Standardization Policies and to publish it ;
(d) to endorse the revised Terms of Reference of the START Team (TRADE/WP.6/2001/8/Add1, annex 2);
(e)
to call on the START Team to :
explore, as a follow up to a request from the CTIED (cf. ECE/TRADE 280, paragraph 64), with UNECE Subsidiary Bodies the possibilities of using the principles and concept of the “International Model” in their areas of competence with the goal of identifying potential pilot projects; and assist with sectoral initiatives based on the “International Model”, as forthcoming from interested parties and as requested.
The model itself as translated by the secretariat into Recommendation L is available UNECE Recommendation “L” “AN INTERNATIONAL MODEL FOR TECHNICAL HARMONISATION BASED ON GOOD REGULATORY PRACTICE FOR THE PREPARATION, ADOPTION AND APPLICATION OF TECHNICAL REGULATIONS VIA THE USE OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS"
17. At the ICSCA VIII-2 meeting in Berlin February 27, 2002 Christer Arvius reported on the UN/ECE WP 6 activities and stated:
The work will now be concentrated on possible initiatives for establishing sectoral agreements under the Model. Such initiatives will be open to countries/regions from UN Member States (i.e. even a wider membership than the WTO) with the UN/ECE secretariat being the focal point for future arrangements (as you know UN/ECE already has experience in operating global agreements such as those in the motor vehicle and transport of dangerous goods areas).
My message is therefore that a global mechanism now already exist for sectoral initiatives and that practical steps now could be taken to establish harmonization agreements when industry see a need for that and the governments are willing to make alignments of common regulatory objectives and make recourse to international standards.On March 4, 2002 in Geneva there was Informal expert meeting to explore possibilities of a sectoral initiative in the Telecom Area for the use of the UN/ECE International Model for Technical Harmonization. According to the conclusions of the meeting report
The meeting agreed that further work is needed to develop the initiative. Carriers need to be involved. The consumers’ acceptance needs to be considered. The needs of the developing countries should also be taken into account – but these have to be further scrutinised
In Spring (2002) representatives of UN/ECE participated in a meeting of the standardization agencies from CIS states (former Soviet Union). and presented there the WP.6 activities with the major focus on the "International Model" in its final form as an UNECE Recommendation. As a result of discussions on regulatory matters at their meeting, the CIS states decided to establish a group of experts (under the umbrella of their sub-regional organization) with a task to elaborate a strategy for harmonization of technical regulations among CIS states. And they will use the "Model" as a basis for such work. believe it is a very important development which might have very important implications for regulatory dialogue and cooperation not only for CIS but for the whole UNECE region.
16. The UN/ECE will continue its work towards defining and encouraging predictable and supportive environment for business in the region. We are open and look forward to cooperation with interested governmental agencies, international and regional organizations, business associations and companies.
For more
information please contact:
Mr. Serguei Kouzmine
Secretary
to UN/ECE Working Party on Technical
Tel. (41
22) 917 27 71, Fax (41 22) 917 04 79/917 00 37;
E-mail: serguei.kouzmine@unece.org
Internet: http://www.unece.org/trade/stdpol
GTW Associates also offers to be of service to any party interested in placing the UN/ECE activity in global context gtw@gtwassociates.com
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