"Foreword" [2013] ELECD 1241; in Epps, Tracey; Trebilcock, J. Michael (eds), "Research Handbook on the WTO and Technical Barriers to Trade" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) ix

Book Title: Research Handbook on the WTO and Technical Barriers to Trade

Editor(s): Epps, Tracey; Trebilcock, J. Michael

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857936714

Section Title: Foreword

Number of pages: 4

Extract:

Foreword
Michael J. Trebilcock



The collection of essays in this volume focuses on a relatively new
frontier for legal and policy analysis of international trading regimes:
technical barriers to trade. It has become something of a truism in
international trade circles that as classical border barriers to trade, i.e.,
tariffs and quotas, have been reduced dramatically in the course of
successive trade negotiations in the post-war period, remaining barriers to
trade increasingly take the form of `within the border' domestic measures
of trading partners. However, unlike classical border barriers to trade, the
large volume and widely divergent character of `within the border'
measures that may constitute impediments to trade are often ­ perhaps
mostly ­ not adopted with a view to restricting trade and protecting
domestic industries, but with a view to advancing a variety of legitimate
domestic policy objectives, including health and safety and environ-
mental objectives, while sometimes incidentally burdening trade.
From the perspective of importing countries, as international trade has
expanded dramatically in the post-war period, the challenges of regulat-
ing the safety of imports to ensure that they adhere to the same standards
that apply to domestically produced goods has grown more daunting. The
logistical challenges of effectively inspecting and monitoring goods at
ports of entry, given the volume of imports, the diversity of countries
from which they originate, and the complexity of international supply
chains are formidable.1 Even countries committed to the nondiscrimin-
atory application of health, safety and environmental regulations to
imports, ...