For an exporter, a change in product requirements in an overseas market, such as in food safety, labelling or testing, can mean adjusting production, securing new certification or changing packaging. Finding out too late can lead to delays, additional costs or even rejected consignments at the border.
Each year, WTO Members notify more than 7,000 new or changed sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBT) requirements, covering everything from food safety, labelling, or packaging rules to testing, inspection, certification and sampling procedures. Ensuring that governments, businesses and other stakeholders know about these changes early, and have the capacity to respond, is critical to facilitate safe and inclusive trade.
The ePing SPS & TBT Platform is designed to do precisely that: make information about upcoming regulatory changes easier to access and create opportunities for stakeholders to engage with policymakers before new requirements take effect.
How to turn this transparency into better market access was the focus of a WTO Public Forum session on 16 September 2026. Linked to a regional STDF project on ePing, the event highlighted solutions that help governments and businesses anticipate regulatory changes, contribute to proposed measures and adapt to new requirements.
Moderated by Daniel Lim from the delegation of Singapore to the WTO, the event brought together representatives from government, private sector and regional and international partners around a common message: information alone is not enough. Transparency works when the right information reaches the right people early enough to act on it, when governments and businesses can engage in dialogue and when countries have the right quality infrastructure in place to respond.
Turning information into action
The ePing tool is an online platform that brings together information on SPS and TBT measures. Developed by the WTO, ITC and UNDESA, it enables WTO Members to notify new or changed product requirements before they are put into place. Public and private stakeholders can then track these notifications, find out about relevant upcoming regulatory changes and engage with trading partners while new requirements are still being considered. This can give governments and businesses valuable time to ask questions, provide comments and prepare to meet new requirements before they take effect. By facilitating timely access and dialogue on regulatory developments worldwide, ePing helps reduce trade costs and frictions and facilitate safe trade.
As highlighted in STDF's Guide on Good Regulatory Practice (GRP), transparency around SPS measures and regulations helps build trust and predictability and enables micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and other value chain actors to benefit more fully from trade opportunities.
A three-year STDF regional project is looking at this in practice in Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. The project brings together public and private stakeholders to promote the use of ePing, understand users' needs and how the platform can facilitate their exports. Learnings from the project will inform technical enhancements to ePing and wider efforts to scale up its use globally.
The project has synergies to ongoing work by international partners. For instance, Ms Maryla Maliszewska, Senior Economist at the World Bank Group, explained how SPS and TBT information can be used to benchmark regulatory approaches, advise governments and analyse the conditions exporters face across markets. AI-based methodologies are being explored to help address information gaps and provide a more detailed picture of the regulatory requirements affecting exports, particularly from developing economies into higher-income markets.
Getting the right information to the right people
Access to information is only the first step. With thousands of notifications circulating each year, countries need effective national and regional systems to identify which changes matter for their trade, get that information to affected stakeholders and coordinate a response. When this happens early enough, stakeholders can comment on draft regulations, prepare for new requirements and reduce the risk of shipments being delayed or rejected because they do not comply.
Mr Livhuwani Godfrey Radzilani, from South Africa's Department of Agriculture, noted that, in the face of increasing regulatory complexities, ePing daily alerts are critical to allow time for exporters to adjust to new requirements and for upgrades to quality infrastructure. He also highlighted coordination challenges faced by South Africa and other developing economies. An SPS coordination office now helps monitor notifications available on ePing, assess their relevance to South African trade and circulate information to the relevant stakeholders.
“Communication and coordination among relevant government agencies, and with the private sector, are central to South Africa's ability to engage and respond to new notifications,” said Mr Radzilani.
Ms Flavia Busingye, Director of Customs and Trade at the EAC Secretariat, shared examples of how information on changing product requirements can flow from the regional level to national authorities and ultimately to farmers. In some cases, this has made it possible to request additional time for compliance and enabled farmers to adjust their practices, keeping trade moving smoothly.
“The value of early information is in being able to act on it. We need to continue raising awareness among the private sector so that businesses know this information is available and can use it proactively to plan their exports and prepare for changing market requirements,” said Ms Busingye.
Giving business a voice before regulations take effect
Transparency also creates an opportunity for businesses to contribute to regulatory processes while measures are still being developed.
Drawing on success stories from different regions, Ms Elizabeth Yepes, Senior Director of Global Regulatory Affairs at the International Council of Beverages Associations, described ePing as an important channel through which industry can provide technical expertise, scientific evidence and experience from other markets while proposed measures are still being considered.
“Success is not about getting every change to a regulation that industry may request. What matters is having the opportunity to engage transparently with governments, contribute evidence and bring industry experience into the discussion,” she said.
The STDF has long promoted improved dialogue and coordination between the public and private sectors. Practical lessons on strengthening public-private partnerships for improved SPS systems are captured in the STDF PPP Guide and PPP case stories. Across STDF projects, experience shows that bringing government agencies, businesses, producers and other value chain actors together builds trust, creates a shared understanding of SPS challenges and priorities, and leads to more effective and sustainable safe trade solutions.
The discussion at the Public Forum underscores a simple point: transparency is most valuable when information leads to action. When governments and businesses know about regulatory changes early, they have more time to exchange evidence, adapt production and compliance processes, engage with regulators and prepare for new export requirements. This matters enormously, especially for smaller businesses in developing countries.
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