Ministry of Commerce And Supplies - Enhanced Integrated ...

N T I S20107.7 WTO/TBT Enquiry PointsAs a complement to the notification obligation, each WTO Member must set up a national enquiry point. Thisacts as a focal point where other WTO Members can request for and obtain information and documentationon a Member’s technical regulations, standards and test procedures, whether impending or adopted, as wellas on participation in bilateral or multilateral standards-related agreements, regional standardizing bodies,and conformity assessment systems. Such enquiry point is also important in acquiring information fromother Members’ enquiry points on regulations and standards affecting products that are export potentials forNepal.Even before getting accession to the WTO, the then MoICS established in June 2003 an enquiry point underthe Technical Service/TBT section of the NBSM responsible for the following functions: Answer enquiries about specific Nepalese products or groups of products; Answer enquiries concerning membership and participation in regional and internationalmeetings; Provide information on standards and technical regulation in Nepal, conformity assessmentprocedure relating to product certification, management system certification, laboratorytesting, standards developed by the NBSM and other agencies.The TBT enquiry point is expected to provide information to exporters and manufacturers on the subjectsrelated to foreign technical regulations and standards of the products of their trade interest. However, thecurrent capacity of the enquiry point falls far short of fulfilling these functions. Although the TBT has takenthe lead to prepare WTO notifications in the past, apparently the national notification authority has taken noaction on any of them. So far, there are no Nepalese notifications.The linkages between the TBT enquiry point and industry are not well established. However, there is growingrecognition of the importance of this information channel. In the National Commerce Policy, introducedin 2009, the GoN has committed itself to strengthening the TBT enquiry point. 10 At present, the MoCS isresponsible for the TBT enquiry point.7.8 Current Technical Assistance ProjectsVarious bilateral and multilateral donor agencies (from India, Norway, Japan, EU, and FAO) have providedtechnical and financial support in the past to key institutions like the NBSM and the DFTQC. 11, 12, 13, 14 Currently,several projects are underway focusing on legal reforms and capacity enhancement to comply with the TBT/SPS Agreement requirements.10MOCS, 2009: Commerce Policy 2065 Published by Government of Nepal, Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, Singha Durbar, Kathmandu,200911EC-Nepal WTO Project, 2009a: EC-Nepal WTO Assistance Program: Revisit of Indicative Timeline by NBSM/DFTQC as per decision of TechnicalCommittee Meeting – Submitted to Programme Steering Committee Meeting, 30 July 2009 (Amended based on stakeholder comments anddiscussion, 20 August 2009) Annex II. - Indicative Timeline (20 August 2009)12EC-Nepal WTO Project, 2009b: EC-Nepal WTO Assistance Program Technical Committee Meeting Minute, June 18, 200913Goonatilake, L., 2007: Session 3: “SMEs Overcoming Supply Side Constraints” Workshop on Private Sector and Aid for Trade ,18 September,2007, MANILA14Padickakudi, O., 2008 :UNIDO activities in support of conformity assessment, ISO Regional Workshop on Conformity Assessment, ConformityAssessment Supporting Development and Trade ,12–13 June 2008, Kiev, UkraineNEPAL TRADE INTEGRATION STRATEGY 2010BACKGROUND REPORT175