Non-tariff barriers have long overtaken tariff barriers as the focal points of governmental interventions in international trading relations and as a matter of WTO law. This development towards greater prominence of non-tariff barriers was already evident prior to the creation of the WTO through various plurilateral codes on matters as varied as trade remedies (anti-dumping, subsidies and safeguards) as well as various subject specific codes.

One of these subject matters was the 1979 Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (Document code LT/TR/A/5), often referred to as the…