Background: As global trade has grown in recent decades, the private sector has often face technical barriers to trade caused by an increasing variety of regulatory systems around the world. As a result, regulatory coherence is now playing a more prominent role on the international trade policy landscape as a means to address these regulatory inefficiencies.

-- (NCAPEC, 2013) A University of Southern California Marshall School of Business survey of Asia-Pacific business leaders in APEC conducted on behalf of ABAC revealed that 77.3% of the business community saw inconsistent standards and regulations across the region as a significant barrier to trade.

Objectives: This project is designed to collect and analyze existing good practices and future challenges particularly promoting cooperation between government agencies and private companies and trade associations for increasing regulatory coherence and decreasing technical barriers to trade with a view to identifying best practices and recommendations to Member economies and their SMEs.

Methodologies: Survey and In-economy Visits, Project Meetings (mainly onlne)

-- Collection and Analysis on TBT, regulatory coherence, and standards related matters in the region. Focusing on TBT related governance, legal basis and operational framework and good practices, and future challenges in the areas of TBT related activities, harmonization of domestic regulation with international or domestic standards.

Outcomes:

1) Develop best practices of public and private cooperation model in overcoming TBT and advancing domestic regulatory coordination.

2) Provide standards and TBT agencies, and private companies and trade associations with state of the art approaches and better knowledge and understanding.