TBT
COMMITTEE INFORMATION SESSION ON NON-TARIFF MEASURES
UNDER THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AGREEMENT
12
November 2025, 10:00-11:30 a.m.
Remarks by the Secretariat[1] on relevant TBT Committee
work
1.1. The purpose of my short remarks is to give you a factual overview of
some "points of contact" between the TBT and ITA Committees' work in
terms of NTMs. It's not my intention to be exhaustive. Some of the factual
information I will mention are only of a general nature, in particular those
concerning notifications. In this respect, an important caveat is the
difficulty of associating TBT product coverage indicated in a good number of
notifications with any corresponding ICT product covered by the ITA. As most
ITA product coverage[2] is based on HS codes, this
difficulty arises from the fact that it's not uncommon for TBT Committee
Members to use ways other than HS codes for identifying the product
coverage in their TBT notification forms, that is: using instead either sui generis product
descriptions or ICS codes ("International Classification for
Standards", maintained by the ISO).[3]
1.2. My remarks will be divided into two parts: first, I will give
you an overview of some possible TBT-ITA linkages focusing specifically on ICT products, and second,
I will address some horizontal issues that are being discussed in, and notified
to, the TBT Committee that might be relevant for ICT products (such as cybersecurity).
[1] Mr. Lauro LOCKS, Counsellor, Trade and Environment Division. These
remarks were made under the WTO Secretariat's sole and own responsibility, and do
not necessarily reflect the positions or opinions of WTO Members.
[2] While most ITA-covered products are HS-based, some are based on the
sui generis product descriptions
contained in Annex B of the agreement.