The Status Of NGOs In TBT Activities

After China's accession to the WTO, China has been facing increasingly severe non-tariff barriers to trade, among which the technical barriers to trade (TBTs) are the main. The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) lays down provisions concerning non-governmental bodies, which in fact acknowledges the legitimacy of non-governmental organizations'(NGOs) preparation, adoption and application of technical barriers to trade. Some developed countries have established domestic laws, authorizing NGOs to participate in TBT activities. These NGOs take advantages of their technical and economic superiority, and establish technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures that are more rigorous than international standards. This has made the TBTs even more flexible and questionably, difficult to deal with.In works concerning TBT Agreement, authors usually focus on the introduction to TBT Agreement, the formation and function of TBTs in various countries, and preliminary confront measures for China to adopt. Some articles discuss the function of guilds in the formation, function and confrontment of TBTs, or discuss the relation of NGOs and the WTO, in a more general perspective. However, not so many articles are dealing with the status of NGOs in TBT activities. Considering this, based on the practice of NGOs in TBT activities, this thesis tries to analyze the origin of power, the supervisory authority and obligation of NGOs in TBT activities, so as to delve into the status of NGOs in TBT activities.According to the practice of countries, NGOs should take a leading role in the preparation, application and confrontment of TBTs. Their power of participation comes from the consent of members and the authorization or permission of a state. According to the state sovereignty principle, the state is certainly entitled to supervise the NGOs, including international NGOs and regional NGOs that are registered in the state or have domiciles in the state. The provisions in TBT Agreement impose a treaty obligation on members, which are also an acknowledgement, reinforcement and limit of the state's supervisory authority. NGOs should conform to the TBT Agreement. However, it is the state's responsibility to take"reasonable measures"to ensure NGOs'conformity. Or the state will have to should international obligations. So, on one hand, the NGOs should be left to play a sufficient leading role in TBT Activities. On the other hand, the state should exercise reasonable and effective supervision over NGOs, so as not to violate its international obligations under TBT Agreement.