Joint Inter-Ministerial Support for Export Companies to Address Trade Technical Barriers

The National Institute of Technology and Standards under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held the first 'Trade Technical Barriers Response Council' on the 19th to share current issues of overseas technical regulations with related ministries and discuss response measures.

The National Institute of Technology and Standards has been operating councils in cooperation with related ministries for joint responses in various fields such as food and pharmaceuticals, agricultural and marine products, and chemical ceramics. Since June last year, it has been analyzing overseas technical regulations (1,433 cases) starting with the food and pharmaceutical sector, which has the highest number of trade technical barrier notifications, and providing information to companies (27 cases) to facilitate joint responses.

At the meeting, the National Institute of Technology and Standards shared the status of trade technical barrier notifications from last year, response achievements by country, and specific trade issues to be raised as objections through the first World Trade Organization Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade. Additionally, they discussed ▲support for responses to key items of small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-sized companies ▲whole-of-government collaboration plans for major regulations requiring joint responses (such as Indonesia's halal certification and India's chemical substance quality order).

Lee Chang-su, Director of the Technical Regulation Response Bureau, emphasized, "As the multilateral trade system is still not functioning smoothly, related ministries must establish a strong cooperative system to support export companies across various fields."