The International Trade Centre's (ITC) programme on NTMs aims at increasing transparency and help countries better understand obstacles to trade faced by the business community.

In close collaboration with national and regional stakeholders, ITC supports countries in finding solutions tailored to meet their specific needs.

MAIN COMPONENTS OF THE NTM PROGRAMME

Regulatory mapping: increasing transparency of NTMs
Providing SMEs with improved access to information on NTMs. This component of the programme consists of the collection, review and classification of national trade-related regulations. A database of import/export regulations categorized by type, product and country complement an alert system on SPS and TBT notifications.

Monitoring: channelling the voice of SMEs to policy makers
Large-scale business surveys and online reporting systems to document SME experiences with government regulations and related procedures when exporting or importing. The tools serve as unique inputs into stakeholder consultations to define ways to reduce NTM-related obstacles and trade cost without compromising legitimate objectives of regulations.

Facilitating: allowing evidence-based policy & TRTA design
Trageted research and analysis that supports the design and implementation of solution packages to address regulatory and procedural trade obstacles. This includes tailored solutions reflecting SME priorities and high-impact areas regarding NTMs, for example, in quality management, trade facilitation and trade information.

NTM Business Surveys 

The ITC business surveys on NTMs document the experiences of companies that are involved in international merchandise and services trade. They identify at product, sector and partner country-level the predominant regulatory and procedural trade obstacles. These include not only NTMs imposed by other countries, but also potential bottlenecks in the home country’s capabilities and technical facilities to meet regulations and demonstrate compliance with NTMs. 

NTM Survey have been implemented in the following countries: 

Access NTM Survey data

ITC offers an interactive platform to analyse the results of the NTM Surveys. The platform also provides access to all of ITC’s NTM related publications and provides more information on ITC’s work on NTMs. The portal can be access at www.ntmsurvey.org