Eleventh Special Meeting on Procedures for Information Exchange

24 June 2025

Programme outline[1]

The TBT Committee will hold its Eleventh Special Meeting on Procedures for Information Exchange^[2] on Tuesday, 24 June 2025, in hybrid mode. The meeting will provide an opportunity for Enquiry Points and Notification Authorities to discuss the activities and challenges relating to information exchange and review how well notification procedures work.

The first part of the meeting will be a plenary session from 10 a.m. to 1.00 p.m., which will also be livestreamed for public viewing. The second part will be held in break-out groups for delegates only, starting at 4.30 p.m. (following the thematic session on Special and Differential Treatment, which will be held from 3.00 to 4.30 p.m. the same afternoon).

In addition, the Secretariat will offer two practical ePing sessions, on Wednesday, 25 June, from 2.00 to 5.00 p.m., and on Thursday, 26 June, from 9.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. These sessions will cover the range of functions available through ePing, including the submission of notifications using the updated formats and guidelines (_G/TBT/59). Enquiry Points and other interested delegates will also have an opportunity to share any questions/feedback they may have on ePing.

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PLenary session (10 a.m. – 1 p.m.)

Opening remarks by the moderator (Daniela García, TBT Committee Chair)

Overview of the TBT Committee's work on transparency

The Secretariat will highlight key outcomes from the Ninth and Tenth Triennial Reviews, refer to the ongoing work under the Transparency Working Group and provide an overview on how ePing can help implement and draw benefits from TBT transparency provisions.

Experience sharing

This session will provide an opportunity for Enquiry Points as well as other stakeholders to share their experiences with, and suggestions for, improving transparency practices. The guiding questions below aim to respond to some of the relevant recommendations from recent Triennial Reviews^[3], as well as related issues which have arisen in capacity building activities. Speakers will be invited to address one or more of the suggested topics:

Institutional arrangements

a._    Who undertakes the functions of the Enquiry Point and Notification Authority? What institutional arrangements work well?

b._    What are key elements for effective and sustainable domestic coordination mechanisms that facilitate compliance as well as drawing benefits from the TBT transparency framework?[4]

Preparation and submission of notifications

c._    What has been Members' experience in preparing and submitting Article 15.2 notifications?[5] How can the submission of such notifications (both first-time statements and updates) be facilitated further?[6]

d._    What are good practices for ensuring that draft technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures proposed by various domestic authorities are notified "at an early appropriate stage" and sequenced with domestic consultations to ensure comments can be duly taken into account?[7]

Commenting process

e._    What has been the experience of Members in handling (i) enquiries and (ii) comments and replies related to technical regulations, conformity assessment procedures and standards?[8]

f._     How frequently are extensions to comment periods (i) requested and (ii) granted?[9]

g._    What concrete examples illustrate how the commenting process works in practice and leads to positive results?

Looking ahead

h._    Building on recent Committee work[10] as well as functions already available in ePing, what complementary actions could assist Members further with institutional arrangements, timely and clear notifications as well as exchange of comments and replies?

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Thematic session on Special and Differential Treatment (3.00 – 4.30 P.M.)

The programme and further details for this session are available here.

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facilitated discussion in break-out groups (4.30 – 6.00 p.m.)

The objective of this session is to offer an interactive setting for delegations to engage further on the topics and questions above, building on the exchanges from the plenary session. The facilitators of the three break-out groups will be Eleanor Sanderson (Australia), Lucy Ikonya (Kenya) and Guadalupe Diaz (Paraguay). They will provide brief reports of the discussions in their groups during the Committee's regular meeting, under the agenda item 4.a on Transparency.

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