Georgia Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in georgia, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
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Standards for Trade
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Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade

Overview

The government has adopted a system of “voluntary” standards and certification, whereby the importer can choose to conform their products to Georgian standards or the standards of any EU or OECD member country. If foreign standards are chosen, they must be registered by the importer in the National Agency for Standardization, Technical Regulations, and Metrology. Standards for food products are administered by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, although sometimes the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance, Tax and Customs Administration, applies differing sanitary and phytosanitary standards regulatory interpretations upon the commodity’s arrival.

Standards and Technical Regulations

The main standards organization in Georgia is the National Agency for Standardization, Technical Regulations and Metrology. Conformity Assessment is one of the functions of the National Agency. Partners of the Agency are ISO, ASTM, IEC, CEN, CENELEC, BIPM, COOMET, IRSA. According to the Governmental Order of March 7, 2013, the United States is among 37 EU and OECD counties that have technical regulations that the Georgian government accepts. As part of the DCFTA agreement, Georgia is increasingly adopting non-science-based EU standards instead of international and Codex standards in the food and agricultural sector.

Testing, Inspection, and Certification

If the importer chooses to comply with Georgian standards, there are about 100 test laboratories accredited in the following fields in Georgia:

  • Electrical products;

  • Products from the chemical, perfume, and pharmaceutical industries;

  • Food, drinking water, mineral water, and alcoholic and non‐alcoholic beverages;

  • Composition of soil and mineral resources;

  • Oil and mineral oil products;

  • Glass products;

  • Paints and dyes;

  • Building materials; and

  • Radio engineering products.

Publication of Technical Regulations

Publication of technical regulations is the responsibility of the National Agency for Standardization, Technical Regulations, and Metrology. Regulations are posted on the Agency’s page and/or published in Georgian government’s online legislative herald, Matsne.

Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are required under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) to notify to the WTO proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures that could affect trade. In 2023, Georgia did not provide advance notice to the WTO or its trade partners regarding changes to SPS or TBT standards. This lack of notification created significant trade barriers for U.S. agricultural exports, particularly poultry, often with little or no warning. The issue was partially resolved through negotiations, which resulted in the resumption of imports and the reexport/transit of U.S. products.

Use ePing to review proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.

The ePing SPS and TBT platform (https://epingalert.org/), or “ePing,” provides access to notifications made by WTO Members under the Agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), distributed by the WTO from January 16, 1995, to present.  ePing is available to all stakeholders free of charge and is a versatile tool that can be used to:

  • Follow and review current and past notifications concerning regulatory actions on products, packaging, labeling, food safety and animal and plant health measures in markets of interest,

  • Receive customized e-mail alerts when new notifications are distributed,

  • Find information on trade concerns discussed in the WTO SPS and TBT Committees.

Per obligation under the TBT Agreement, each WTO Member operates an Enquiry Point. National TBT Enquiry Points are authorized to accept comments and official communications from other national TBT Enquiry Points, which are NOT part of the WTO or the WTO Secretariat. All comment submissions from U.S. stakeholders, including businesses, trade associations, U.S domiciled standards development organizations and conformity assessment bodies, consumers, or U.S. government agencies on notifications to the WTO TBT Committee should be sent directly to the USA WTO TBT Enquiry Point. Refer to the comment guidance at https://www.nist.gov/notifyus/commenting for further information. This guidance is provided to assist U.S. stakeholders in the preparation and submission of comments in response to notifications of proposed foreign technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.

Contact Information:

The standards point(s) of contact at Post: TbilisiCommerce@state.gov

Standards Attaché for Georgia: Diana Hajali, International Trade Specialist: Diana.Hajali@trade.gov

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