Standards and international trade

Most countries involved in international trade are subjected to the rules of the multilateral trading system set by the World trade Organization (WTO) – the WTO counts 162 member states

Standards, and particularly international standards, play an important role in the framework of the WTO agreements. International standards have a key role within two important WTO Agreements:

  • The WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement)
  • The WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement)

 

The first (TBT Agreement) deals with technical regulations covering all products (and production processes), including industrial and agricultural products – with the exception of sanitary and phytosanitary measures

The second (SPS Agreement) applies to all sanitary and phytosanitary measures which may, directly or indirectly, affect international trade.

 

This topic was discussed in more detail in Module 1: Global Context