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Abstract: Product standards, conformity assessment procedures and other technical barriers to trade (TBT) are prototypical examples of ‘low politics.’ As one might predict in a field where economic stakes in individual cases are relatively low, TBT represents a notable success story in terms of dispute prevention and management. However, recent years have witnessed numerous transatlantic disagreements over technical regulations, standards and associated procedures adopted by both the US and the EU and affecting a wide range of products. While the economic impact of many of these regulations taken individually is small, their cumulative impact is significant. Disagreements over standards for products like gas connector hoses have become politically significant not only because of their economic impact, but also because they reflect deeper governance issues. The US and the EU have very different systems for adopting technical regulations and standards; each sees the other’s system as creating impediments to trade and hampering transparency, participation and harmonization, the hallmarks of TBT law. Only one disagreement in the general category of TBT regulation has led to a formal US-EU dispute proceeding. That is the ‘hushkits’ case, in which the US challenged EU restrictions on the registration and operation of certain aircraft retrofitted to comply with noise limitations set by the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Section I of this paper discusses US-EU conflicts over technical regulations and standards for ordinary commercial products, typified by the disagreement over gas connector hoses. Section II of the paper discusses the hushkits case.
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