Chapter 12. International trade, standards and regulations Learning objective

10. How do the economies of WTO Members benefit from TBT and SPS 
Agreements? 
By preparation and signing of these Agreements WTO members actually agree by 
consensus on the rules and regulations that must be applied on a multilateral basis (see pic. 
12.1).They don't lose their sovereignty, when make a decision together with its partners on 
these rules, but at the same time receive a number of benefits from this approach: 

availability of information on mandatory and voluntary requirements for products and 
services on export markets; 

availability of information on conformity assessment procedures on export markets; 

availability of information on mandatory and voluntary requirements for products and 
services on export markets; 

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
availability of information on conformity assessment procedures on export 
markets; 

confidence in the official legal status and legitimacy of technical regulations; 

possibility of mutual recognition of conformity assessment procedures between the 
member countries of the WTO; 

availability of information about the requirements in export markets related to 
security of people, animals and plants; 

availability of information on the applicable in export markets sanitary, veterinary, 
phytosanitary and quarantine measures and required conformity assessment documents; 

confidence in the harmonization of sanitary, veterinary, phytosanitary and 
quarantine requirements and their control measures based on international documents and 
their equivalence in different countries; 

confidence in the uniformity of the conformity assessment procedures for imported 
and manufactured products, its reasonable sufficiency and non-discriminatory; 

possibility of mutual recognition of conformity assessment procedures between the 
member countries of the WTO; 

confidence in the official legal status and legitimacy of technical regulations. 
Picture 12.1 – Technical regulation and the WTO