Brussels, 21/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has just launched a new website providing information on technical barriers to trade that have been notified in the context of the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The notification procedure results from the Agreement on technical obstacles to trade. When a WTO member is preparing a new technical rule which may have a substantial impact on international trade, it must notify it before it enters into force, in order to give the other Member States the opportunity to look into the impact, and comment on the proposed measure. WTO members thus keep each other abreast of national technical regulations before they are adopted, which helps to prevent unnecessary technical barriers to international trade from coming into being. The new website will allow companies and national authorities to follow notifications underway, and to react in time, if necessary. It allows notification messages accompanying the notified texts to be consulted, plus draft texts with a translation, if available, in one or more working language. The site also contains commits submitted by the EU on drafts notified by third countries, and will allow companies to sign up to a mailing list to be informed as and when notifications in their sphere of activity arrive. (http: //europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/tbt).