WTO Public Forum: Should the development of private standards be more transparent?

Private standards are increasing in number, and they affect trade, but their status in the WTO remains problematic.

Our concern is to bring more of these standards within the normative framework of the trade regime—that is, we worry that these private forms of social order can conflict with the fundamental norms of transparency and non-discrimination. In this session at the 2016 WTO Public Forum, we will discuss one aspect of the problem: How reclusive should the WTO allow product standards to be? Should the WTO encourage its members to apply to private standards the WTO rules for adopting those standards that already come under the aegis of the WTO? To what extent do private standards bodies already approximate the transparency recommendations of the SPS and TBT Agreements?

Time and place

Session N°: WS21

Date: 27 September 

Time: 17:30-19:00

Location: Room F

Panel

Mark Halle, Executive Director, IISD-Europe, Moderator

Prof. Robert Wolfe, School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University, Canada 
Prof. Petros Mavroidis, Columbia University Law School, USA
Reinhard Weissinger, Senior Expert, Research and Education, International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Switzerland
Joshua Wickerham, Manager, Policy & Outreach ISEAL Alliance, UK
Sun Xinhua, Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the WTO