The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) has a South African Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) early warning system for South African exporters. The service, which is free of charge subject only to registration, serves to keep individuals and companies informed on technical regulatory and conformity assessment developments that may impact South African exports. It also serves to provide subscribers with an opportunity to voice their concerns on technical regulations and conformity assessment requirements of countries to which they export before they become a technical barrier to trade. It is understood that this service also list South Africa's TBTs, implying that the service is not only restricted to South African exporters. In essence it deals with all TBTs that affect South Africa. The service acts as an early warning system to inform South African companies of draft technical regulations that are developed by countries that may create barriers to trade. A technical regulation refers to a set of requirements used by governments to determine compulsory requirements for product or service characteristics or the related process that should be complied with. In addition, technical regulations also have specific administrative provisions and testing, certification and other conformity assessment requirements where compliance is mandatory with regard to public safety, health and environmental issues. Why are the public notifications required? The World Trade Organisation (WTO) TBT Agreement has a transparency obligation that requires that countries publish and notify the WTO of draft technical regulations at least 60 days in advance of adoption to allow time for comment and consideration of comments. Before their entry into force. A reasonable time of at least 6 months should be allowed for trading partners to become acquainted with them. The South African Enquiry Point allows for the download of all these notifications, classifies them according to the International Code for Standards and makes them available as a searchable online database for exporters, manufacturers, regulators and the public's information and comment. In the instance of South African companies that comment, if such comments are considered to be of national interest, a South African national position or comment may be developed by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) in conjunction with experts who will then submit it to the relevant country, which itself may result in bilateral talks with the country if concerns are not taken into consideration. Should the bilateral interaction not resolve the problem then it may be registered as a specific trade concern in the WTO TBT Committee meetings. Should the matter not be resolved and an unnecessary barrier of trade results then the WTO dispute settlement mechanism may be engaged. In order to ensure that you are alerted to any potential TBTs all you need to do is to register and you will be informed of such developments by email. Accounting for the above it is still concerning that when you speak to South African companies there is a large segment that believes that there is an obligation on others to inform them of any trade-related developments, rather than for them to be attuned to these.