BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:unctad.org BEGIN:VEVENT UID:6a7a7f0f44f5b DTSTART:20170925T070000Z SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE DTEND:20170925T150000Z LOCATION:Geneva\, Suisse SUMMARY:Non-Tariff Measures Week Mandatory Trade Regulations and Voluntary Sustainability Standards CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:​Key IssueRegulations and standards are a main hurdle to trad e. Business surveys as well as quantitative assessments show that with fal ling tariffs\, Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) have become the more important i mpediment to trade. Challenges include costs of compliance and in particul ar the lack of transparency. At the same time\, many regulations and stand ards provide benefits for consumer protection and other sustainable develo pment objectives. The Non-Tariff Measures Week sheds light on the importa nce of NTMs on international trade and development\, and shows successful global and regional approaches to tackle the challenges including transpar ency initiatives and regulatory cooperation. NTMs include a broad basket of policies that can potentially affect trade. On the one hand\, tradition al trade policy instruments\, such as quotas or price controls (often term ed non-tariff barriers)\, still persist in some sectors. On the other hand \, a wide array of regulatory measures address\, inter alia\, health and e nvironmental protection (Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures and Technical Barriers to Trade)\, post-sales services\, rules of origin\, government p rocurement and intellectual property. In the 21st century\, such regulator y measures are a central focus in trade agreements and have a bigger impac t on trade than traditional barriers. They are however also more complex a nd the line between legitimate public policy objectives and protectionism is blurred. The Multi-Agency Support Team (MAST) developed a taxonomy for the International Classification of NTMs\, which became a common language for the international trade community\, including for researchers\, regio nal and international organizations as well as governments. This was the f irst step towards enhancing transparency and understanding of NTMs. Signif icant effort has also been made in the subsequent global and comprehensive mapping of NTMs by UNCTAD and its partners. The current NTMs database cov ers more than 80 per cent of world trade. The Meeting follows up on the S eptember 2015 and October 2016 Expert Meetings on NTMs Classification to t ake stock of the policy agenda and the further development and revision of the NTMs taxonomy. The meeting aims at a revised version of the Internati onal Classification on Non-Tariff Measures. The focus of the first two day s is on mandatory NTMs\, followed by one day on Voluntary Sustainability S tandards (VSS). All interested participants are welcome to the NTMs week.& lt\;p>\;​Key Issue<\;/p>\;<\;p>\;Regulations and standards are a main hurdle to trade. Business surveys as well as quantitative assessme nts show that with falling tariffs\, Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) have becom e the more important impediment to trade. Challenges include costs of comp liance and in particular the lack of transparency. At the same time\, many regulations and standards provide benefits for consumer protection and ot her sustainable development objectives.&\;#160\;<\;/p>\;<\;p>\; The Non-Tariff Measures Week sheds light on the importance of NTMs on inte rnational trade and development\, and shows successful global and regional approaches to tackle the challenges including transparency initiatives an d regulatory cooperation.&\;#160\;<\;/p>\;<\;p>\;NTMs include a broad basket of policies that can potentially affect trade. On the one ha nd\, traditional trade policy instruments\, such as quotas or price contro ls (often termed non-tariff barriers)\, still persist in some sectors. On the other hand\, a wide array of regulatory measures address\, inter alia\ , health and environmental protection (Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures and Technical Barriers to Trade)\, post-sales services\, rules of origin\ , government procurement and intellectual property. In the 21st century\, such regulatory measures are a central focus in trade agreements and have a bigger impact on trade than traditional barriers. They are however also more complex and the line between legitimate public policy objectives and protectionism is blurred.&\;#160\;<\;/p>\;<\;p>\;The Multi-Agen cy Support Team (MAST) developed a taxonomy for the International Classifi cation of NTMs\, which became a common language for the international trad e community\, including for researchers\, regional and international organ izations as well as governments. This was the first step towards enhancing transparency and understanding of NTMs. Significant effort has also been made in the subsequent global and comprehensive mapping of NTMs by UNCTAD and its partners. The current NTMs database covers more than 80 per cent o f world trade.&\;#160\;<\;/p>\;<\;p>\;The Meeting follows up on the September 2015 and October 2016 Expert Meetings on NTMs Classificatio n to take stock of the policy agenda and the further development and revis ion of the NTMs taxonomy. The meeting aims at a revised version of the Int ernational Classification on Non-Tariff Measures. The focus of the first t wo days is on mandatory NTMs\, followed by one day on Voluntary Sustainabi lity Standards (VSS). All interested participants are welcome to the NTMs week.<\;/p>\;\n\nView meeting on unctad.org\nhttps://unctad.org/meetin g/non-tariff-measures-week-mandatory-trade-regulations-and-voluntary-susta inability-standards DTSTAMP:20260811T014655Z END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:6a7a7f0f44f8e DTSTART:20170926T070000Z SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE DTEND:20170926T150000Z LOCATION:Geneva\, Suisse SUMMARY:Non-Tariff Measures Week Mandatory Trade Regulations and Voluntary Sustainability Standards CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:​Key IssueRegulations and standards are a main hurdle to trad e. Business surveys as well as quantitative assessments show that with fal ling tariffs\, Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) have become the more important i mpediment to trade. Challenges include costs of compliance and in particul ar the lack of transparency. At the same time\, many regulations and stand ards provide benefits for consumer protection and other sustainable develo pment objectives. The Non-Tariff Measures Week sheds light on the importa nce of NTMs on international trade and development\, and shows successful global and regional approaches to tackle the challenges including transpar ency initiatives and regulatory cooperation. NTMs include a broad basket of policies that can potentially affect trade. On the one hand\, tradition al trade policy instruments\, such as quotas or price controls (often term ed non-tariff barriers)\, still persist in some sectors. On the other hand \, a wide array of regulatory measures address\, inter alia\, health and e nvironmental protection (Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures and Technical Barriers to Trade)\, post-sales services\, rules of origin\, government p rocurement and intellectual property. In the 21st century\, such regulator y measures are a central focus in trade agreements and have a bigger impac t on trade than traditional barriers. They are however also more complex a nd the line between legitimate public policy objectives and protectionism is blurred. The Multi-Agency Support Team (MAST) developed a taxonomy for the International Classification of NTMs\, which became a common language for the international trade community\, including for researchers\, regio nal and international organizations as well as governments. This was the f irst step towards enhancing transparency and understanding of NTMs. Signif icant effort has also been made in the subsequent global and comprehensive mapping of NTMs by UNCTAD and its partners. The current NTMs database cov ers more than 80 per cent of world trade. The Meeting follows up on the S eptember 2015 and October 2016 Expert Meetings on NTMs Classification to t ake stock of the policy agenda and the further development and revision of the NTMs taxonomy. The meeting aims at a revised version of the Internati onal Classification on Non-Tariff Measures. The focus of the first two day s is on mandatory NTMs\, followed by one day on Voluntary Sustainability S tandards (VSS). All interested participants are welcome to the NTMs week.& lt\;p>\;​Key Issue<\;/p>\;<\;p>\;Regulations and standards are a main hurdle to trade. Business surveys as well as quantitative assessme nts show that with falling tariffs\, Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) have becom e the more important impediment to trade. Challenges include costs of comp liance and in particular the lack of transparency. At the same time\, many regulations and standards provide benefits for consumer protection and ot her sustainable development objectives.&\;#160\;<\;/p>\;<\;p>\; The Non-Tariff Measures Week sheds light on the importance of NTMs on inte rnational trade and development\, and shows successful global and regional approaches to tackle the challenges including transparency initiatives an d regulatory cooperation.&\;#160\;<\;/p>\;<\;p>\;NTMs include a broad basket of policies that can potentially affect trade. On the one ha nd\, traditional trade policy instruments\, such as quotas or price contro ls (often termed non-tariff barriers)\, still persist in some sectors. On the other hand\, a wide array of regulatory measures address\, inter alia\ , health and environmental protection (Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures and Technical Barriers to Trade)\, post-sales services\, rules of origin\ , government procurement and intellectual property. In the 21st century\, such regulatory measures are a central focus in trade agreements and have a bigger impact on trade than traditional barriers. They are however also more complex and the line between legitimate public policy objectives and protectionism is blurred.&\;#160\;<\;/p>\;<\;p>\;The Multi-Agen cy Support Team (MAST) developed a taxonomy for the International Classifi cation of NTMs\, which became a common language for the international trad e community\, including for researchers\, regional and international organ izations as well as governments. This was the first step towards enhancing transparency and understanding of NTMs. Significant effort has also been made in the subsequent global and comprehensive mapping of NTMs by UNCTAD and its partners. The current NTMs database covers more than 80 per cent o f world trade.&\;#160\;<\;/p>\;<\;p>\;The Meeting follows up on the September 2015 and October 2016 Expert Meetings on NTMs Classificatio n to take stock of the policy agenda and the further development and revis ion of the NTMs taxonomy. The meeting aims at a revised version of the Int ernational Classification on Non-Tariff Measures. The focus of the first t wo days is on mandatory NTMs\, followed by one day on Voluntary Sustainabi lity Standards (VSS). All interested participants are welcome to the NTMs week.<\;/p>\;\n\nView meeting on unctad.org\nhttps://unctad.org/meetin g/non-tariff-measures-week-mandatory-trade-regulations-and-voluntary-susta inability-standards DTSTAMP:20260811T014655Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR