Other Market Access Issues Sample Clauses

Other Market Access Issues. The chapter entitled Technical Obstacles to Commerce has as its objective the avoidance of norms and technical regulations being used as nontariff barriers to trade in industrial and agricultural goods between Colombia and the US. This chapter is key for achieving real access and taking advantage of preferential treatment. All countries have norms and technical regulations designed to protect the life of people, plants, and animals; they are also designed to protect the environment and consumers (for example, to avoid fraud over quality control issues). Just as sanitary and phytosanitary issues protect agricultural products, norms and technical regulations of a scientific or technological nature are required for goods to enter a country; for example, the characteristics of packaging or seatbelt rules for cars. The FTT establishes mechanisms of cooperation and transparency. A committee on technical obstacles has been created that has among its functions the implementation of this chapter, preventing norms and regulations from impeding commerce, working on the convergence or harmonization of norms, and improving systems of verification and compliance. It is hoped that the agreement will contribute to the reduction of the proliferation of norms and regulations, facilitating commerce by means of compliance with the mechanisms of evaluation, and increasing the quality and competitiveness of Colombian products bound for international markets, as international standards converge. This last point is of utmost importance; if the norms and regulations for a product are different in Colombia than in other countries, the product will have to be made according to the specifications of each market; the convergence of norms will guarantee standardization and, by means of this route, reducing costs and taking advantage of economies of scale. The Rules of Origen define the characteristics that goods should have to be considered beneficiaries of the preferences in the treaty. In other words, it is a matter of determining the level of inputs and value added to determine the origin of a good. The treaty defines three grades of goods that qualify for this label. The first includes goods obtained or produced in their totality in the countries of the agreement. This is the case in the majority of agricultural goods and those made with 100% domestic raw materials. Second, goods that are produced with goods made from raw materials from signatory countries. For example, Colombian g...