WORLD TRADE G/TBT/Notif.97.114
14April 1997
ORGANIZATION
(97-1544)
Committee onTechnical Barriers toTrade
NOTIFICATION
Thefollowing notification isbeing circulated inaccordance withArticle 10.6.
1. Member toAgreement notifying: SRILANKA
Ifapplicable, name oflocalgovernment involved (Articles 3.2and7.2):
2. Agency responsible: SriLanka Standards Institution which functions under theMinistry
ofScience, Technology andHuman Resources Development
Agency orauthority designated tohandle comments regarding thenotification canbe
indicated ifdifferent from above:
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X],2.10.1 [],5.6.2 [],5.7.1 [],other:
4. Products covered (HSorCCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICSnumbers maybeprovided inaddition, where applicable): Timber
5. Title, number ofpages andlanguage(s) ofthenotified document: Draft Standard
Specification forIdentification, Grading andMarking ofImported Construction Timber
(81pages, inEnglish)
6. Description ofcontent: ThisSriLanka Standard specifies nomenclature, identification,
durability, treatability, grades, grade stresses, marking andrequirements forvisual stress
grading oftimber forstructural use. Machine stress grading isnotincluded inthis
Standard.
7. Objective andrationale: Timber isaperishable material which needs great carein
specification, selection andhandling ofbulkimports. Dealers andusers alsoneedtobe
educated tohelpthem sell/select their requirements. Import inspections should be
comprehensive andstreamlined. Pastexperience onimport oftimber toSriLanka,
which sometimes discouraged theprospective users, hasfurther underlined theneedfor
establishing some guidelines tohelptheimporters, timber merchants andtheusers.
Formosteffective useofconstruction timber, itmustbestructurally designed to
suitthespecific application. Toaccomplish thisgoal, timber over theyears, was
evolved asanengineering material inspite ofitshighvariability andinherent strength
reducing defects bythedevelopment ofstress-graded timber. Asmost timber exporters
provide stress-graded timber, therequired design information aswellasthestress-graded
timber canbemade available tothestructural engineers whocanpassonthebenefits of
economy andperformance totheuser. Availability ofstress-graded imported timber
willalsoencourage thestress-grading oflocal timber inthenearfuture. Hence aneed
exists foraSriLanka Standard onimported construction timber which provides
information onselection ofspecies, durability, treatability, timber grades, design stresses
aswellasguidelines onimplementing andchecking thegrading processes.
./.G/TBT/Notif.97.114
Page2
8. Relevant documents: After finalization there isarequest tomake thisStandard
mandatory, specially fortheimports oftimber. Thiswillbepublished intheSirLanka
Gazette.
9. Proposed dateofadoption: After finalization
Proposed dateofentry intoforce:
10. Final dateforcomments: 14May1997
11. Texts available from: National enquiry point [X]oraddress andtelefax number ofother
body: SriLanka Standards Institution
Documentation &Information Division
76Duminda Building, Galle Road, Colombo 04
SirLanka
Tel.: +941501446 Fax: +941593586
E-mail: ddi@slsi.ac.lk