The U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) has released an infographic estimating the frequency and coverage of technical standards and conformity assessment procedures reported to the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) ePing system from 2016 to 2025. Over this period, ITA found that Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs) potentially affected 94.1 percent of U.S. exports by value, underscoring their broad reach across American trade.
According to ITA, rules and procedures that are not based on international standards can create challenges for U.S. exporters, particularly when they are unnecessarily trade restrictive. For this reason, WTO members are required to notify the WTO when introducing a technical regulation or conformity assessment procedure that could significantly affect trade and is not aligned with international standards. Stakeholders can register for alerts at epingalert.org to track emerging TBTs. These notifications track growth in global regulations and signal measures that may become trade barriers.
ITA’s analysis found that regulatory activity is concentrated across several sectors: the top 10 product categories—including edible vegetables, plastics, optical equipment, beverages, essential oils, vehicles, dairy, pharmaceuticals, electrical machinery, and machinery—account for about 40 percent of all notifications.
Notification frequency, some which represent measures that could become TBTs, varies by country. Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda lead with over 1,000 notifications each, followed by the European Union, the United States, China, Brazil, South Korea, and Burundi.
Access the infographic on ITA’s webpage.
More about ITA
ITA works to promote transparency and fairness as trading partners develop new standards, engaging regional bodies and bilateral partners to help prevent new regulations from becoming unnecessary trade barriers. WTO members must publish proposed regulations early enough for stakeholder comment before adoption, and U.S. trade agreements can reinforce these obligations.
