HCM City (VNA) – Morethan 100 delegates from 21 APEC member economies are attending a workshop in HoChi Minh City on August 21 and 22 to discuss measures to improve managementcapacity under the World Trade Organisation (WTO)’s Agreement on TechnicalBarriers to Trade (TBT).  

The event, part of the third APECSenior Officials’ Meeting (SOM 3) and related meetings, aimed to share experiencesin public-private partnership in building and adopting technical standards for theTBT agreement which was initiated by the US and joined by Australia, NewZealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, among others.

Speaking at the event, Chairmanof the APEC Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance (SCSC) Nguyen Van Khoi hailedthe member economies for aligning technical standards with the TBT agreementand international practices, towards facilitating trade and investment in theregion to realise the Bogor goals and the Action Plan to implement the 2017-2020Lima Declaration on Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).

Khoi, who is also Deputy Director of the StandardsDepartment under Vietnam’s Directorate of Standards, Metrology and Quality, expressedhis hope that the workshop will help cut unnecessary technical barriers totrade, bringing benefits to multilateral trade and businesses in the region,especially small and medium-sized enterprises.-VNA