Private-Sector Standards as Technical Barriers in International Trade in Goods: In Search of WTO Disciplines (Paperback)
Private-sector standards are playing an increasingly important role in international trade and are being widely applied within national and international markets by a large variety of players. The WTO is the major international organization dealing with issues of international trade in goods on a multilateral level. The proliferation and wide application of private-sector standards, however, seems to present a number of serious challenges for the WTO system. Indeed, if compliance with the requirements of private-sector standards becomes a predominant factor for real access to the markets of goods of WTO Members, this may render the WTO regulatory system for technical barriers to trade practically irrelevant. The present study explores the "world" of private-sector standards, as well as those WTO rules which may be relevant for the regulation of these standards and for addressing the challenges they pose. This study thus contributes to the clarification of the rules applicable to private-sector standards on the multilateral level according to the relevant provisions of WTO law. It also offers a number of recommendations for the further development of the WTO regulatory system in this area. [Subject: International Trade Law, Private Law]Ã?Â?Ã?Â?