One Step Ahead of Changing Global Requirements: Link to Export Alert!

2004-09-21

Picture this: you have exported a product to St. John's, Antigua but upon arrival your product is denied entry because it is not in compliance with recently modified regulatory requirements.  What happens now?  Trade is halted and time and money are lost!  This scenario could have been avoided if you had advance notice of the changed requirements.  Through Export Alert!, you can.

Offered by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), with the support of the Department of International Trade, Export Alert! is a unique, automated and customized e-mail notification service that helps subscribers stay one step ahead of changing product requirements by alerting them when regulations affecting their trade interests are changing in the global markets.  Current subscribers to the service include: small and medium-sized enterprises, government officials, exporters, importers, manufacturers, consumers, and academia.

Utilizing the official notifications required of governments under the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Export Alert! automatically e-mails users when governments in any of the 147 WTO member countries are proposing to change their technical regulations, conformity assessment procedures, and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures.  In 2003, WTO signatory countries issued over 1,700 notifications. The most frequently notified areas included: food technology, agriculture, telecommunications, health care technology, environment and health protection, construction materials and building, and road vehicle engineering.

To subscribe, users can self-register on SCC's Web site by completing a profile that identifies which of the 41 subject areas and WTO member countries they want to track.  The service then disseminates the notifications based on these profiles.

In addition to providing users with early warning of domestic and foreign regulatory changes before they become law, Export Alert! grants subscribers access to the complete texts of the draft regulatory measures.  The service also provides subscribers with the opportunity to voice their concerns regarding the measures. These concerns are taken into consideration as the regulations are finalized.

Export Alert! is of value to anyone with a vested interest in international trade and it has the positive feedback to prove it.  As one user commented, “I have found the service valuable and we have passed relevant information to our exporters because of the service.”  Another user stated that Export Alert! is a “great service and applicable to any business doing business abroad.”

Indeed, Export Alert! helps keep its subscribers abreast of regulatory changes and enables them to avoid the surprise of new or changing trade-related technical regulations and SPS measures in global markets.   It also allows users to provide their input into the measures that may affect their trading activities -- and possibly ward off regulations that may create barriers to their trading practices.

The Standards Council Canada operates the Canadian WTO/NAFTA Enquiry Point under contract to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. In addition to offering Export Alert!, the Enquiry Point notifies the WTO of Canadian technical regulations, conformity assessment procedures, and SPS measures that may affect international trade. It also conducts research on behalf of clients into standards-related requirements in global markets.

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