National Enquiry Point for WTO/TBT
Technical Regulations & Standards in TBT Agreement
Technical regulations and standards set out specific characteristics of a product — such as its size, shape, design, functions and performance, or the way it is labeled or packaged before it is put on sale. In certain cases, the way a product is produced can affect these characteristics, and it may then prove more appropriate to draft technical regulations and standards in terms of a product's process and production methods rather than its characteristics per se. The TBT Agreement makes allowance for both approaches in the way it defines technical regulations and standards (Annex 1 of the Agreement).
In the context of the TBT Agreement, this means that they form part of legislation. If you are exporting a product to a market that imposes technical regulations on that product, you need to make sure your product complies with them, or it will be denied entry.