Impacts of Technical Barriers to Trade and Technical Standards on Toy Industry of Developing Country

Abstract

As most of the industries are outsourcing their manufacturing process to developing countries to form the global supply chain in the era of globalization, controversies due to different technology standards are being on the rise, and the case of USs recall on Chinese toy imports is one of the examples. Although the reaction of the US was confined to temporary recall, it seems possible that similar disputes involving import restriction might develop into a legal dispute case, which will be judged by WTO panels. In such case, the main ruling would be based on TBT Agreement. This research paper treats the case study about USs toy recall case and the legitimacy of such measure under TBT Agreement. In addition, several implications will be stated as well including discrepancy between TBT Agreement and its application and standard harmonization issue.