Every WTO member, while allowing imports, has the right to adopt standards considered by it to be appropriate for human, animal or plant life or health or for the protection of the environment or for prevention of deceptive practices. The TBT seeks to assure that regulations, standards, testing and certification procedures do not create unnecessary hurdles to trade. However, with a view to preventing excessive diversity, TBT encourages member countries to use international standards where these are appropriate but it does not oblige them to change their levels of protection in the process.
TBT contains a code of good practice for the preparation, adoption and application of standards. It lays down that procedures used to determine whether a product conforms with the national standards have to be fair and equitable. It does not approve of any methods that would give domestically produced products an unfair advantage. It also encourages countries to accord recognition to each other’s testing procedures. To help the stakeholders to know about the latest standards in the prospective markets, all WTO members are required to establish a national enquiry point.
The TBT gives decisive advantage to industrial countries as they have superior technologies and do follow more rigorous and higher standards. On the contrary, Pakistan being a developing country has yet to progress to those relatively sophisticated standards. In particular, there are not enough laboratories. This puts Pakistan at a disadvantage. Relevance for the furniture sector:
There can be genuine concerns about safety features of the furniture exported form Pakistan e.g. it has rough edges that can cause injury, or its design is defective or it has failed to use fire retardant material as required by the consumers.
There is also the possibility that protectionists interests in importing countries may insist on laying down unrealistic standards which might have the effect of obstructing trade. In such cases, Pakistani exporters may be well advised to plead that the arbitrary standards have been creating unnecessary hurdles to trade and constitute a violation of the TBT Agreement.
There are various government institutions through which awareness regarding environmental standards and regulations can be/should be disseminated regularly to the export sector. These include the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industries and Ministry of Environment, Trade Development Authority of Pakistan and Provincial Department of Environment Protection. The lack of such information can lead to loss of markets. The Ministry of Commerce may also consider including a trade and environment section in the cell that deals with the WTO and draw on the relevant expertise from the other ministries.
TBT contains a code of good practice for the preparation, adoption and application of standards. It lays down that procedures used to determine whether a product conforms with the national standards have to be fair and equitable. It does not approve of any methods that would give domestically produced products an unfair advantage. It also encourages countries to accord recognition to each other’s testing procedures. To help the stakeholders to know about the latest standards in the prospective markets, all WTO members are required to establish a national enquiry point.
The TBT gives decisive advantage to industrial countries as they have superior technologies and do follow more rigorous and higher standards. On the contrary, Pakistan being a developing country has yet to progress to those relatively sophisticated standards. In particular, there are not enough laboratories. This puts Pakistan at a disadvantage. Relevance for the furniture sector:
There can be genuine concerns about safety features of the furniture exported form Pakistan e.g. it has rough edges that can cause injury, or its design is defective or it has failed to use fire retardant material as required by the consumers.
There is also the possibility that protectionists interests in importing countries may insist on laying down unrealistic standards which might have the effect of obstructing trade. In such cases, Pakistani exporters may be well advised to plead that the arbitrary standards have been creating unnecessary hurdles to trade and constitute a violation of the TBT Agreement.
There are various government institutions through which awareness regarding environmental standards and regulations can be/should be disseminated regularly to the export sector. These include the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industries and Ministry of Environment, Trade Development Authority of Pakistan and Provincial Department of Environment Protection. The lack of such information can lead to loss of markets. The Ministry of Commerce may also consider including a trade and environment section in the cell that deals with the WTO and draw on the relevant expertise from the other ministries.
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