The WTO plays an important role in supporting efforts to achieve international regulatory cooperation (IRC) and to facilitate trade. First, the WTO provides a multilateral framework for trade among its 164 members, with a view to ensuring that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as...

“The WTO Analytical Index” is an article-by-article guide to the interpretation and application of the WTO agreements by WTO bodies. It covers the jurisprudence of the WTO Appellate Body, panels and arbitrators as well as related decisions and other significant actions taken by other...

WTO members have notified over 25,000 draft regulatory measures to the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee over the past 20 years, covering imports ranging from food to medical devices. Over 470 of these measures have undergone detailed scrutiny by WTO members in the TBT Committee. But...

Agricultural products worth over US$ 1,765 billion were traded in 2013. WTO rules help to ensure that these products are traded safely and that health protection measures are not used as an excuse for protecting domestic producers. This brochure, produced to mark the WTO’s 20th anniversary,...

This fully revised and expanded second edition provides an overview of the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement and the types of measures it covers. It also contains the full text of the Agreement and the decisions and recommendations adopted by the TBT Committee since 1 January 1995.

This paper analyses the trade effects of restrictive product standards on the margins of trade for a large panel of French firms. To focus on restrictive product standards only, we use a new database compiling the list of measures that have been raised as concerns in dedicated committees of the...