General Information

The following guidance is provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to assist U.S. industry in the preparation of comments in response to notifications of proposed foreign technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures made under the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT).

This guidance provides suggestions for consideration only; it does not constitute requirements for submissions.  In general, comments submitted by U.S. industry do not have to be in any particular format.  However, we suggest including the following elements.

What to Submit

1. Comments submitted by:
• Your Name
• Company Name
• Contact Name at Company Name
• Date Submitted
• Notification commented on (number and title)


2. Issue statement:
• The reason you are submitting comments should be stated clearly and concisely (e.g., the proposed technical regulation does not reference an existing international standard that would accomplish the same purpose as the proposed regulation).
• We recommend you focus your issue statement on technical aspects of the proposed regulation or regulations with which you may have issues.


3. Supporting rationale statement:
• You should provide rationale to support your issue statement.
• We recommend you focus your supporting rationale statement on technical aspects of the proposed regulation or regulations with which you may have issues.


4. In case of a problem meeting proposed date of entry into force:
• If your company will not be able to comply with the proposed regulation or conformity assessment procedure by the proposed date of entry into force, it would be helpful to suggest a date by which your company will be able to comply.

How to Submit

Please submit any emails at least three business days before the closing date for comments. These can be emailed to: notifyus@nist.gov or sent to the Contact Us data listed here. Please keep in mind that comments submitted through the regular mail or the telephone must also be received at least three business days before the closing date for comments.