Liaison: World Trade Organization (WTO)

Links between the BIPM and the WTO

• The BIPM has been granted ad hoc observer status at the WTO TBT Committee, and attends its meetings which are held typically three times a year in Geneva.
• The WTO is one of the partners in INetQI

BIPM update to the WTO TBT Committee

March 2024

Purpose

The WTO is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world's trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.

The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) of the WTO aims to ensure that technical regulations, standards, and conformity assessment procedures are non-discriminatory and do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade, while also providing members with the right to implement measures to achieve legitimate policy objectives, such as the protection of human health and safety, or protection of the environment.

The BIPM and the WTO cooperate to ensure effective dissemination of information on the importance of the quality infrastructure and particularly metrology as one of its key components among trade regulators and international/intergovernmental organizations holding ad hoc observer status at the WTO TBT Committee.