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Ministers decide to recommend that the
Secretariat of the World Trade Organization reach an understanding
with the International Organization for Standardization
(“ISO”) to establish an information system under which:
1. ISONET members shall transmit to the ISO/IEC Information Centre
in Geneva the notifications referred to in paragraphs C and J of the
Code of Good Practice for the Preparation, Adoption and Application of
Standards in Annex 3 to the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade,
in the manner indicated there;
2.
the following (alpha)numeric classification systems shall be
used in the work programmes referred to in paragraph J:
(a)
a standards classification system
which would allow standardizing bodies to give for each standard
mentioned in the work programme an (alpha)numeric indication of the
subject matter;
(b)
a stage code system
which would allow standardizing bodies to give for each standard
mentioned in the work programme an (alpha)numeric indication of the
stage of development of the standard; for this purpose, at least five stages of development should be
distinguished: (1) the stage
at which the decision to develop a standard has been taken, but
technical work has not yet begun; (2) the stage at which technical work has begun, but the period
for the submission of comments has not yet started; (3) the stage
at which the period for the submission of comments has started, but
has not yet been completed; (4) the stage at which the period for the submission of comments
has been completed, but the standard has not yet been adopted; and (5) the
stage at which the standard has been adopted;
(c)
an identification system
covering all international standards which would allow standardizing
bodies to give for each standard mentioned in the work programme an (alpha)numeric
indication of the international standard(s) used as a basis;
3. the
ISO/IEC Information Centre shall promptly convey to the
Secretariat copies of any notifications referred to in paragraph C
of the Code of Good Practice;
4. the
ISO/IEC Information Centre shall regularly publish the
information received in the notifications made to it under paragraphs
C and J of the Code of Good Practice; this publication, for which a reasonable fee may be charged,
shall be available to ISONET members and through the Secretariat to
the Members of the WTO.
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