Technical Barriers to Trade

Since the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) came into force, Members haveinvested considerable efforts in adopting and promoting the use of measures intended to reduce conformityassessment (CA) related barriers to trade. Our knowledge of the impact of specific trade facilitatingprogrammes in the CA field is limited so far, making empirical studies of their trade impact desirable. Thisstudy investigates the impact of Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity (SDOC) on trade flows. As underSDOC regimes suppliers themselves provide written assurance of conformity to applicable technicalregulations of a market, the costs of compliance are assumed to be smaller than for CA regimes requiringcertification by third parties.The study focuses on three cases of SDOC introduction in the European Union covering eligibleproducts from the medical devices, telecommunications equipment and machinery sectors. The paperexplains the rationale for using SDOC, expected benefits and design characteristics of SDOC regimes. Thequantitative analysis uses a gravity model and finds compelling evidence that the introduction of SDOC inthe EU was a factor that influenced the evolution of import flows into EU markets positively. Intra-EUtrade flows and imports from extra-EU OECD countries increased for SDOC-eligible radio andtelecommunications equipment and low-risk medical devices, whereas the results for machinery areambiguous. The most striking increases, visible in all three sectors, are found for exports to EU marketsfrom non-OECD (developing) countries included in the sample. Analysis of the effect of SDOC forselected individual EU members furthermore suggest that the magnitude of effect depends on the nature ofthe CA regime that SDOC replaced.

OECD Trade Policy Papers

Technical Barriers to Trade

Evaluating the Trade Effects of Supplier's Declaration of Conformity