WTO Members and stakeholders share views on the use of digital solutions for conformity certificates and quality infrastructure activities. The aim was to increase understanding of Member efforts to promote the digitalisation of trade processes, and notably of conformity certificates, and provide an opportunity to discuss digital regulatory approaches.
NATA’s Brett Hyland spoke at the Technical Barriers to Trade meetings this year at a session that included the ‘Digital Solutions’ session within the Conformity Assessment Procedures stream.
This panel session attracted representatives from the European Commission, State Administration for Market Regulation (China) as well as several certification and accreditation bodies. NATA’s Brett Hyland was one of the panelists, reflecting NATA’s extensive activities in this area over the past 12 months.
The session explored a range of challenges and opportunities, including future interoperability of systems as well as non-traditional applications (such as conformity assessment of IT products and 3D printing specifications). Some details for the session can be found here:
https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tbt_e/tbtts_e/tbtts080322pm_e.htm
Digital trade and the need for suitable conformity controls is a difficult and fast-evolving area. Kudos to WTO for providing greater visibility on this, gathering a well-informed group to discuss potential problems and solutions.