RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/W/160
15 June 2001
(01-2988)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English
JAPAN’S EXPERIENCE ON TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE IN THE AREA OF TBT
Communication from Japan
I. INTRODUCTION
1. In the report of the Second Triennial Review which was agreed by the TBT Committee last
year, Members were invited on a voluntary basis to further communicate information on technicalassistance programmes they proposed, provided or received.  This paper is aimed to contribute to the
compilation of the relevant information by the Committee and the Secretariat, by introducing Japan’s
experience on technical assistance in the area of TBT.
2. The importance of technical assistance in the area of TBT increased as the
WTO TBT Agreement, which includes a lot of developing countries as its signatories compared to itspredecessor, GATT Standard Code, came into force in 1995.
3. Japan has a long history of technical assistance, well back into the days of GATT Standard
Code.  Japan’s technical assistance in the area of TBT has three distinctive features.  One is that it is
based on the requests from developing countries, in other words, it is demand-driven.  Two is that
Japan contributes both at bilateral level as well as regional level.  Three is that responding to therequests from developing countries, Japan provides a variety of programmes such as acceptance of
trainees, dispatching of experts both short and long term, in a wide range of areas, from
standardization to conformity assessment and metrology.
4. In the following paragraphs, we would like to introduce Japan’s technical assistance
programmes in recent years, first at bilateral level, and then at regional level.
II. COOPERATION AT BILATERAL LEVEL
5. As for Japan’s technical assistance in the area of TBT at bilateral level, technical assistance
organizations, such as JICA, are providing vari ous programmes such as acceptance of trainees,
dispatching of experts for both short and long term, holding of seminars, responding to the requests
from developing countries, in cooperation with TBT- related Ministries.  In the following, we would
like to introduce examples of Japan’s bilateral technical assistance programmes in the area of TBT in
recent years.
A. A
CCEPTANCE OF TRAINEES
6. Responding to the requests from developing countries, Japan has been providing programmes
such as follows;
(a) Programmes on conformity assessment procedures (1999- ; has been provided to
15 countries);
(b) Programmes on standardization (1999- ;  has been provided to 12 countries);G/TBT/W/160
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(c) Programmes on assisting the WTO accession (1999 and 2000; provided to
one country each year);
(d) Programmes on standards and conformity assessment systems in the area of
agricultural and forest products (1999;  provided to 6 countries).
B. DISPATCHING OF EXPERTS
7. Responding to the requests from developing countries, Japan has been providing programmes
such as the following:
(a) Long term:
- Dispatching of an expert in the area of EMC to Thailand (1999-);
- Dispatching of an expert in the area of conformity assessment to
Saudi Arabia (1998-);
- Dispatching of an expert in the area  of standardization to Oman (2000-);
- Dispatching of an expert in the area of standards and conformity assessment
system in general to Vietnam (1999-);
- Dispatching of an expert in the area of motor vehicle type approval system to
Thailand (1999-).
(b) Short term:
- Dispatching of an expert in the area  of standardization to Saudi Arabia
(1997);
- Dispatching of an expert in the area of electrical safety standards to
Saudi Arabia (1999);
- Dispatching of an expert in the area  of standardization to Chile (1999);
- Dispatching of two experts in the area of conformity assessment of forest
products to Uruguay (1999);
- Dispatching of an expert in the area of agricultural product standards to
Thailand (2001).
C. SEMINARS
8. Responding to the requests from developing countries, Japan has held seminars on standards
and conformity assessment in general in several countries since 1996.
III. COOPERATION AT REGIONAL LEVEL
9. As a country in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan has been contributing to the technical
assistance activities in standards and conformity assessment area by the regional organization, APEC
(Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation).G/TBT/W/160
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A. PFP (P ARTNERSHIP FOR PROGRESS ) PROGRAMME
10. From 1996 to 2000, Japan, with the cooperation from Malaysia, led a PFP programme
(seminars) on standards and conformity assessment.
B. APEC TILF PROGRAMME
11. With the cooperation from other APEC economie s, Japan has been leading the following
programmes (seminars).
(a) APEC/SCSC training programmes on standards and conformity assessment
(2001-2002).
C. OTHERS
12. Responding to the requests from developing economies of APEC region, Japan has been
providing the following programmes (acceptance of trainees).
(a) Programmes on conformity assessment procedures (1996- ; has been provided to
ten countries).
(b) Programmes on standardization (1996- ; has been provided to 11 countries).
13. Programmes on metrology standards systems (1996- ; has been provided to six countries)
IV. JAPAN’S EXPERIENCE
14. As seen in the previous paragraphs, over the past years, Japan has been providing
considerable amount of technical assistance in the area of TBT, responding to the needs and requests
from developing countries.  The past experience points out that in order to promote effective technical
assistance, cooperation from developing countries is needed.  To put it concretely, the following
two points can be pointed out:
(a) Identification and prioritization of the needs by developing countries;
(b) Give higher priority to technical assistance in the area of TBT in the entire technical
assistance request list of a developing country.
15. Good example is the case of Saudi Arabia.  Saudi Arabia in the latter 1990s, gave importance
to capacity building in the area of TBT as they sought for the accession to the WTO, and gave high
priority within their entire list of technical assistance requests to Japan to technical assistance in thearea of TBT.  As the result, Japan’s TBT rela ted sector could provide considerable amount of
technical assistance in the area of TBT to Saudi Arabia.  This is a logical consequence, as
Japan’s ODA/technical assistance is based on requests from developing countries, a demand-driven
policy.
V. CONCLUSION
16. Japan has considerable length of history and experience in technical assistance in the area of
TBT, providing demand-driven programmes at both bilateral and regional level based on requestsfrom developing countries, and as a result, has contributed to the capacity building of developing
countries in the area of TBT.G/TBT/W/160
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17. In order to promote effective technical assistance in the area of TBT, the following points are
important (a) identification and prioritization of needs by developing countries, (b) prioritization of
technical assistance in the area of TBT by developing countries in their entire list of requests for
technical assistance.
18. Lastly, we would like to hope that this paper will  be of some contribution to the current works
on technical assistance in the TBT Committee.
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