Strengthening the dissemination of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade

On the morning of July 4, in Xuan Huong Ward - Da Lat, the National Committee for Standards and Metrology, the Office of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade in Vietnam (TBT) organized a training course on developing the TBT network for central ministries, branches, management agencies, national industry associations, members from the Departments of Science and Technology, the Department of Standards, Metrology and Quality, and enterprises in provinces and cities nationwide.

Conference providing information on technical barriers to trade for agricultural exports

Delegates were informed about the technical barriers to trade agreement (TBT); the implementation of the TBT agreement, Vietnam's obligations and commitments at the WTO and free trade agreements (FTA); shared regulations on labeling agricultural products in some key markets such as the US, the European Union (EU), China, Japan, etc.; and instructions on exploiting the ePing system to handle WTO export notifications and warnings.

Accordingly, in 2024 and the first 6 months of 2025, Vietnam has implemented 456 notifications on technical barriers to trade; 12 export warnings for ministries, branches, associations and enterprises; attended meetings of the International TBT Committee on the following topics: Carbon emission reduction standards, conformity assessment procedures, traceability to ensure compliance with sustainability standards for bulk agricultural products ; cooperation in medical device regulations; international standards play an important role in ensuring adaptability between markets; popularizing the WTO ePing feature...

Ms. Ton Nu Thuc Uyen - Acting Director of the Vietnam General Secretary's Office delivered the opening speech.

Specifically, the ePing TBT/SPS Alert System is the result of cooperation between the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations (UN) and the International Trade Center (ITC), and has been widely used in all WTO member countries, including Vietnam. The platform provides information on the process of developing Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures of WTO members. The ePing system has become a cross-border dialogue tool between management agencies and businesses to address potential trade issues at an early stage, and currently has more than 27,000 users in 135/166 member countries. The goal of ePing is to increase transparency and promote global trade with the following features: notification and trade concerns, comments on draft measures, providing translations in languages, processing notifications, export warnings, etc.

Delegates were provided with a lot of useful information and knowledge.

The conference also provided regulations on agricultural product labeling of some key export markets such as the European Union (EU), the US, and China. There will be regulations on: The name of the food, agricultural products must be legal, the list of ingredients, the actual weight, the name and address of the food supplier, instructions for use, nutritional declaration, batch number, country of origin, name and address of the packaging and distribution company... must be clear.

Popularize the strict regulations of major markets

Along with the information, knowledge, and digital application software updated at the conference, delegates were also shared experiences in producing and exporting agricultural products to the Japanese market by Vien Son Joint Stock Company ( Lam Dong ) and its efforts to overcome very strict technical barriers to trade with requirements on quality and food safety. These include strict regulations on food hygiene and safety, food labeling, plant quarantine, random inspections at the port of entry, etc.

Mr. Nguyen Duy Da - Director of Vien Son Company shares experience in producing and exporting agricultural products to the Japanese market.

However, technical barriers to trade are both a challenge, a driving force and an opportunity for Vien Son Company to constantly innovate, improve productivity and quality, and achieve international food safety certifications. As a result, 89% of the Company's agricultural products are exported to Japan, 4% to Thailand, 3% to Korea, 2% to Taiwan and 2% to the EU.

Many discussions at the conference aimed to create fundamental changes in improving the productivity and quality of goods to meet the requirements of a demanding market.

The conference aims to create new momentum to promote the activities of the Vietnam TBT network to localities in the country, bringing TBT activities in localities into reality, linking with difficulties, removing obstacles that businesses are facing. Strengthening the dissemination of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, supporting businesses to improve the productivity and quality of agricultural products, expanding markets, serving exports.

Source: https://baolamdong.vn/tang-cuong-hoat-dong-pho-bien-hiep-dinh-rao-can-ky-thuat-ve-thuong-mai-381080.html