3 - International Regulatory Co-operation under the SPS and TBT Agreements

Summary

This chapter gives an overview of the disciplines regarding international regulatory co-operation that exist in the SPS and TBT Agreements. It argues that to complement the transparency obligations of the two Agreements, a number of provisions encourage WTO Members to engage in regulatory co-operation, that can take place either bilaterally or multilaterally in the context of the WTO. This regulatory co-operation that is both encouraged by the SPS and TBT Agreements and enabled by the Committee meetings takes place at the early stages of the domestic regulatory process regarding trade-related measures, and is an essential complement to both the substantive obligations presented in Chapter 1 and the transparency obligations presented in Chapter 2. Indeed, together, these different legal disciplines of the SPS and TBT Agreements allow Members to understand better each others’ regulations and participate directly in each others’ regulatory processes, thus ultimately preventing disputes from rising.