West bank and gaza Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in west bank and gaza, 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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Overview

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has pledged to apply international standards requirements (e.g., ISO 9000 usage) to all imports. The Palestine Standards Institution (PSI), established in 1994, has been working to develop Palestinian standards, but currently the PA widely uses those standards adopted by the Standards Institute of Israel (SII). PSI is expected to assume its role regarding all standards issues in the future. Due to SII testing requirements, there are frequent delays for goods entering Palestinian markets.

Standards

Most standard testing is conducted in Israeli labs, although the Palestinian Ministry of Health has begun to institute some testing procedures of its own. PSI currently provides product testing and standards certification to Palestinian companies in the sectors of chemicals, construction materials, electronic equipment, elevators and escalators, energy and hydraulic equipment and systems, furniture, household electrical appliances, leather, processed food, paper, plastics, pressurized vessels, central gas installations and textiles, tourism and hospitality and toys. Concrete and construction materials as well as some food products are also being tested at Birzeit University and other Palestinian testing labs.

Testing, Inspection and Certification

Since all West-Bank and Gaza-bound goods enter through Israeli controlled ports and border crossings, product certification is made according to Israeli standards, except for products on the limited list of A1 and A2 that allows the PA to conduct its own standards testing. There are currently no mutual recognition agreements between the PA and U.S. organizations.

Publication of Technical Regulations

There is a National Gazette in the West Bank and Gaza; the Palestinian Legal and Judicial System “Al-Muqtafi” where regulations are occasionally published.

Contact Information

Palestinian Standards Institution (PSI)

Mr. Haidar Hejja, Director General

Tel: +970-2-298-9014 Fax: +970-2-296-4433

Ramallah, West Bank

Email: info@psi.pna.ps

Although the PA is not currently a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), U.S. exporters should be aware that members of the WTO are required under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) to notify to the WTO of proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures that could affect trade.

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

The ePing SPS&TBT platform (https://epingalert.org/), or “ePing”, provides access to notifications made by World Trade Organization (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 does not require registration unless the user wishes to receive customized e-mail alerts.  Use it to browse notifications on past as well as new draft and updated product regulations, food safety and animal and plant health standards and regulations, find information on trade concerns discussed in the WTO SPS and TBT Committees, locate information on SPS/TBT Enquiry Points and notification authorities, and 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. 

Notify U.S., operated and maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since 2003 to distribute and provide access to notifications (and associated draft texts) made under the WTO TBT Agreement for US stakeholders, has reached its end of life. Per obligation under the TBT Agreement, each WTO Member operates a national TBT (and an SPS) 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 Inquiry Point.  Refer to the comment guidance at https://tsapps.nist.gov/notifyus/data/guidance/guidance.cfm 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.

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Global Business Navigator Chatbot Beta

Welcome to the Global Business Navigator, an artificial intelligence (AI) Chatbot from the International Trade Administration (ITA). This tool, currently in beta version testing, is designed to provide general information on the exporting process and the resources available to assist new and experienced U.S. exporters. The Chatbot, developed using Microsoft’s Azure AI services, is trained on ITA’s export-related content and aims to quickly get users the information they need. The Chatbot is intended to make the benefits of exporting more accessible by understanding non-expert language, idiomatic expressions, and foreign languages.

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As a beta product, the Chatbot is currently being tested and its responses may occasionally produce inaccurate or incomplete information. The Chatbot is trained to decline out of scope or inappropriate requests. The Chatbot’s knowledge is limited to the public information on the Export Solutions web pages of Trade.gov, which covers a wide range of topics on exporting. While it cannot provide responses specific to a company’s product or a specific foreign market, its reference pages will guide you to other relevant government resources and market research. Always double-check the Chatbot’s responses using the provided references or by visiting the Export Solutions web pages on Trade.gov. Do not use its responses as legal or professional advice. Inaccurate advice from the Chatbot would not be a defense to violating any export rules or regulations.

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The Chatbot does not collect information about users and does not use the contents of users’ chat history to learn new information. All feedback is anonymous. Please do not enter personally identifiable information (PII), sensitive, or proprietary information into the Chatbot. Your conversations will not be connected to other interactions or accounts with ITA. Conversations with the Chatbot may be reviewed to help ITA improve the tool and address harmful, illegal, or otherwise inappropriate questions.

Translation

The Chatbot supports a wide range of languages. Because the Chatbot is trained in English and responses are translated, you should verify the translation. For example, the Chatbot may have difficulty with acronyms, abbreviations, and nuances in a language other than English.

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