Tracking Regulatory Changes by WTO Members

World Trade Organization (WTO) members are required to notify other members of new or revised domestic regulations that could impact international trade in food and agricultural products. Under WTO rules, WTO members evaluate and respond to these regulations via a comment process for sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) or technical barriers to trade (TBT) measures.

The WTO maintains a platform that makes all notifications under the WTO SPS and TBT agreements available to the public. We encourage stakeholders to utilize ePing (epingalert.org) to monitor notifications. ePing also has functionality that allows the public to access information about SPS and TBT trade concerns that have been raised in the WTO. Comment submissions from U.S. stakeholders, including businesses, trade associations, U.S. domiciled standards development organizations and conformity assessment bodies, consumers, or U.S. Government agencies, on notifications to the WTO TBT Committee should be submitted to the USA WTO TBT Enquiry Point. Refer to the comment guidance at https://tsapps.nist.gov/notifyus/data/guidance/guidance.cfm for submission instructions and further information. 

To complement ePing, FAS maintains a system to catalog U.S. Government comments and aids in the notification, review, and comment process. This system is called the System for Tracking Agricultural Regulations, or STAR.  U.S. Government users may register for STAR access and weekly comment status reports here: STAR.

If you have questions about the STAR system, email US.SPSenquirypoint@fas.usda.gov or call (202) 720-9124. The TBT Enquiry Point can also provide information concerning TBT notifications and the use of ePing, including setting up effective notification alerts; email usatbtep@nist.gov or call 301-975-2918.