‘Relevant International Standards’ and ‘Recognized Standardization Bodies’ under the TBT Agreement

26 Pages Posted: 3 Sep 2014

See all articles by Panos Delimatsis

Panos Delimatsis

Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC); Tilburg Law School

Date Written: September 2014

Abstract

Owing to innovations and a growing consumer demand for better and safer products, the number of technical standards has been steadily increasing in recent years. As standardization is a major catalyst to global commerce, The World Trade Organization (WTO), a typical consensus-driven organization, exercises a high level of deference towards technical rationality as expressed through international standards. The WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) even requires WTO Members to use relevant international standards and presumes compliance with the TBT when such standards are used. Nonetheless, practice shows that several international standards are adopted through processes which do not appear to respect the fundamental tenets of transparency and due process. Representativeness and inclusiveness are not guaranteed in several international standard-setting bodies (ISSBs) and power politics seem to prevail over good governance practices. Through recourse to negotiating history and case-law, this paper aims to analyse the origins of the WTO approach vis-à-vis standards and examine, from a normative perspective, what procedural and substantive guarantees an international standard and an international standard-setter will have to comply with in a era of increased legalization of international rule-making. Conceptually, the paper aims at the tentative identification of an analytical framework that would lead to a gradual democratization of international standardization.

Keywords: international standards, international standard-setting bodies, standard-setting organizations (SSOs), World Trade Organization (WTO), WTO agreement on technical barriers to trade (TBT), transparency, inclusiveness, standardization

JEL Classification: D82, F02, F13, F23, F68, K33, L15

Suggested Citation

Delimatsis, Panagiotis, ‘Relevant International Standards’ and ‘Recognized Standardization Bodies’ under the TBT Agreement (September 2014). TILEC Discussion Paper No. 2014-031, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2489934 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2489934

Panagiotis Delimatsis (Contact Author)

Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC) ( email )

Warandelaan 2
Postbus 90153
Tilburg, NL-5000 LE
Netherlands
0031 13 466 8251 (Phone)
0031 13 466 8047 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/staff/p-delimatsis

Tilburg Law School ( email )

Warandelaan 2
Postbus 90153
Tilburg, 5000 LE
Netherlands

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/staff/p-delimatsis

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
682
Abstract Views
2,248
Rank
70,513
PlumX Metrics