The WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) recognises the right of WTO Members to introduce measures to control the goods entering their market in support of legitimate objectives. In doing so, it aims to ensure that those measures do not lead to the discriminatory treatment of WTO Members or create unnecessary obstacles to trade. The TBT Agreement obliges WTO Members to use relevant international standards, guides or recommendations as a basis for their measures wherever possible. The TBT Agreement covers technical measures impacting trade in all goods including terminology, symbols, packaging, marking and labelling. It does not cover trade in services or government procurement.

The TBT Agreement applies to:

• Technical Regulations: these lay down product characteristics or their related processes and production methods, including the applicable administrative provisions, with which compliance is mandatory.
• Standards: a document approved by a recognized standards development body that sets out rules, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods, with which compliance is voluntary. Standards may become technical regulations if mandated by law.
• Conformity Assessment Procedures: any procedure used, directly or indirectly, to determine that relevant requirements in technical regulations or standards are fulfilled.

The TBT Agreement does not cover standards or procedures regarding quarantine and biosecurity measures, as these fall under the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures. Please refer to our SPS page for further information on the SPS Agreement.

How do I keep informed of technical barriers to trade in other countries?

The TBT Agreement includes a range of transparency obligations. Under the TBT Agreement WTO Members are required to notify any new or modified technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures. Members are expected to provide a comment period which allows other WTO Members and their stakeholders to raise questions ahead of the finalisation of the measure. By registering for the ePing email alert system you can receive notifications via email on a daily or weekly basis for your specific export markets and/or products. Please note ePing uses information that WTO Members have notified to the WTO and therefore may not contain all TBT measures. Detailed guidance on how to register for ePing, and also how to engage in the comment process, is provided below:

• ePing user guide [DOCX 219 KB]
• ePing user guide [PDF 370 KB]

Questions and contacts

If you have questions or concerns about a trading partner's TBT measures, you are encouraged to contact us at: tbt.enquiry@dfat.gov.au

Where appropriate, the Australian Government works directly with trading partners and/or makes representations in relevant WTO Committees to address specific questions or concerns.

The TBT Committee

The WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (the TBT Committee) comprises representatives from WTO Members and usually meets three times a year. DFAT represents Australia at these meetings. The TBT Committee fulfils two main functions:

1. to serve as a forum where delegations may discuss specific trade concerns about TBT measures that affect their trade
2. to provide an opportunity for members to discuss how to strengthen the implementation of the TBT Agreement, primarily by exchanging experiences on specific themes including technical assistance, transparency, standards, conformity assessment and good regulatory practices. Dedicated thematic sessions also explore approaches to TBT measures in sectors of particular interest.

Further information

The WTO TBT gateway provides direct links to relevant information provided by the WTO on the TBT Agreement.

DFAT coordinates a whole-of-government strategy to address existing and emerging non-tariff barriers across a range of forums, including the TBT Committee. Visit the Addressing non-tariff trade barriers webpage for more information.