The TBT Agreement and Private Standards

Abstract

By ‘standardizing’ different and otherwise incompatible products, transnational private standards have contributed to enhancing the process of economic globalization. Today, however, questions are raised as to whether the burgeoning phenomenon of (transnational) private regulation is working as an impediment to free trade. One of the few international agreements explicitly addressing the standards adopted and implemented by ‘non-governmental bodies’ is the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (‘TBT Agreement’). Given the unremitting growth of private standards in the global regulatory space and their relevance for international trade, it is important to understand the role of the TBT Agreement in the ambit of private regulation. The main aim of this contribution is to clarify whether and/or to what extent the TBT Agreement can or should be applied to regulate private regulatory regimes, and in what ways the TBT Agreement already confers legal normativity on international private standards.

Keywords: TBT Agreement, private standards, non-market-driven standards, food safety standards, WTO law

JEL Classification: K32, K33