This paper illustrates how the work of World Trade Organization’s (WTO) standing bodies—its ‘Third Pillar’, as we will call it—is inspiring parties in regional trade agreements (RTA) negotiations and contributing to deeper integration. We focus on the work of the WTO technical barriers to trade (TBT) Committee and explore, as a case study, the extent to which the Committee's decision on principles for development of international standards (the Six Principles) has shaped provisions in RTAs. This Decision, arguably the most important decision taken by the TBT Committee, is meant to clarify which international standards may be a relevant basis for TBT measures; an issue that has been left undefined under the WTO TBT Agreement. Our analysis covers 260 RTAs, and shows that one quarter of RTAs has sharpened and hardened the Committee’s decision by making it directly applicable to Parties (in RTAs) whereas under the WTO they are ‘merely’ recommendations. A small number of RTAs follow a different approach and explicitly name the sources of relevant international standards.

中文翻译：

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深入了解 WTO 的第三个支柱：WTO 委员会如何影响区域贸易协定

本文阐述了世界贸易组织 (WTO) 常设机构——我们称之为“第三支柱”——的工作如何在区域贸易协定 (RTA) 谈判中激励各方并促进更深层次的融合。我们重点关注 WTO 技术性贸易壁垒 (TBT) 委员会的工作，并作为案例研究探讨委员会关于制定国际标准的原则（六项原则）的决定在多大程度上影响了区域贸易协定的规定。该决定可以说是 TBT 委员会做出的最重要的决定，旨在澄清哪些国际标准可能是 TBT 措施的相关基础；世贸组织 TBT 协定未定义的问题。我们的分析涵盖 260 个 RTA，并表明四分之一的区域贸易协定通过使其直接适用于缔约方（在区域贸易协定中）来强化和强化委员会的决定，而在世贸组织下，它们“仅仅是”建议。少数区域贸易协定采用不同的方法，并明确指出相关国际标准的来源。