Regional workshop on the implementation of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) for Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus countries was held in Vienna from 15 to 17 July 2014, hosted by the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The seminar was designed to assist Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus countries to consolidate their knowledge of the principles and disciplines of the TBT Agreement.

During the seminar, the key provisions of the TBT Agreement, including the scope and measures, latest activities and discussions in the TBT Committee were presented to the participants as well as activities related to the international standards.

The lecture included an overview of the principles and disciplines of the TBT Agreement (non-discrimination, unnecessary barriers to trade), including the presentation of the provisions of the TBT Agreement through recent TBT-related disputes. The new online notification submission system was demonstrated within a presentation on the transparency procedures and practices of the TBT Agreement, as well as training in its use. It should be emphasized that a platform for online notification submission was established in October of 2013, and that from this aspect the seminar was extremely beneficial.

In part of the lectures related to the standards, the advantages of harmonized standards were presented as well as the activities and principles of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). At the end of the workshop reference was made to the standards for renewable energy and energy efficiency as well as to transport fuel standards. The presentations regarding the above mentioned topics were held by experts from the IEC, UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) and UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme).

In addition, the participants had an opportunity to exchange national experiences related to the implementation of the TBT Agreement through prepared presentations.

Finally I would like to point out that the seminar was very useful because it allowed easier understanding of the provisions of the TBT through practical examples, while a series of practical exercises provided an opportunity for participants to test their knowledge of the TBT Agreement.