The United States Trade Representative  Is an agency within the Executive Office of the President  Approximately 200 people work at USTR  Negotiate the Trade Agreements that advance the President’s Trade Agenda  Responsible for monitoring our trading partners compliance  Ambassador Michael Froman is the United States Trade Representative, a Member of The President’s Cabinet

Today’s Discussion  How regulators comply with the WTO TBT Agreement and TBT Provisions in our FTAs.  How do regulators maintain a knowledge of the policy areas where understanding of how TBT disciplines are is advancing  Policy discussion such as the Triennial Review of the TBT Agreement  Findings in Dispute Settlement that advance our understanding of the Agreement  Practices of Other Members  How do regulators interact with each other, the trade agencies and the public to ensure compliance with the Agreements

TBT Committee  Meets three times a year in Geneva, Switzerland  Attended by all 170+ WTO Members.  Objectives  Advance policy discussions on key topics to implementing the agreement  Good Regulatory Practice; Regulatory Cooperation; Use of International Standards; Conformity Assessment Procedures; Inquiry Point Operations  Discuss specific trade concerns among Members  Two days of interventions, spanning issues raised  As a regulator, one of my objectives is to comply, so my proposed regulation does not get discussed in the TBT Committee

STCs raised by Member, November 2015

Notification of Proposed Regulations to the TBT Committee  Mexico and the United States have good track records of “advanced TBT citizenship” when it comes to publishing our proposed regulations in our official publications (Federal Register/Diario Official).  Notify the TBT Committee of a proposed regulation.  Provide a copy of the proposed regulation for other WTO Members to review.  Identify any deviations from international standards.  Provide a comment period.  Provide a “reasonable interval” for implementation of the final regulation (six months from the date of proposal).  Discuss the other Member comment upon request.

Important Aspects for Regulators  Notification to the TBT Committee  Allowing 6 months for comment and implementation  Taking account of the comments in the final regulation  Use of International Standards  Use of conformity assessment procedures  Mutual acceptance of data  Recognition of accreditation

Conclusions  Good Regulatory Practice  Continue to exchange information on GRP mechanisms.  Thematic Session on Regulatory Impact Assessment in March  Regulatory Cooperation  Factual information sharing on regulatory cooperation activities  Discuss elements of regulatory cooperation between Members  Thematic sessions on regulatory cooperation  June and November 2016  Energy Efficiency Standards and Food Labeling proposed or any other topic proposed by Members could be considered.

Conclusions  Conformity Assessment  Continue exchange of information in three areas:  Approaches to conformity assessment  Use of relevant conformity assessment standards  Recognition of Conformity Assessment Results  Exchange information to enhance regulator reliance on international or regional schemes for conformity assessment, including sectoral specific schemes.  Discuss approaches to the use of quality infrastructure as it facilitates trade with respect to standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures  Thematic discussion in March to discuss national or regional systems and regional trade agreements as they relate to RTAs.

Conclusions  Standards  Thematic session in June about referencing standards in regulation  Central Government and non-government standardizing bodies:  to publish their work plans on websites and notify the location to the ISO/IEC Information Center  Share information about the publication of a notice announcing the period for commenting on a draft standard.

Conclusions  Inquiry Point  Discuss the internal coordination of the handling of comments  Explore ways to improve their functioning, including through use of on-line tools  Prepare a guide on best practices for Inquiry Points for consideration of Members at the 8 th Special Meeting on Information Exchange, November 2016  Technical Assistance  Thematic Session on Technical Assistance November, 2016

Schedule of Thematic Sessions  March 2016  Regulatory Impact Assessment; Reliance on international or regional systems of regulatory cooperation, including sectoral schemes and in Regional Free Trade Agreements.  June 2016  Regulatory Cooperation between Members (Energy Efficiency) and how to use standards in technical regulations  November 2016  Technical Assistance, Regulatory Cooperation (potentially food labeling) and Information Exchange  Deliverable on Best Practices for Inquiry Points