Export Alert! is a unique, automated, and customized e-mail notification service that helps exporters keep abreast of regulatory changes in global markets, before they become the law. This service, the only alert service of its kind in Canada, is provided by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) with the support of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT). The service is offered free of charge to Canadians.

Export Alert! sends you an e-mail warning when foreign regulators are changing the requirements that apply to your products. This service gives you:

• automatic notification of proposed regulatory changes in your specified field(s) of interest;
• access to full texts of draft regulatory measures;
• the opportunity to comment on changes.

Clients

Current subscribers to the service include: Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises, government officials, exporters, importers, manufacturers, consumers, and academia.

Export Alert! is of value to anyone with a vested interest in international trade and it has the positive feedback to prove it. As one user commented, “I have found the service valuable and we have passed relevant information to our exporters because of the service.” Another user stated that Export Alert! is a “great service and applicable to any business doing business abroad.”

New Features

An enhanced version of the service was launched February 2007. Improvements include:

• More user friendly, user driven, and customizable service;
• An information board to provide users with the latest Export Alert!-related and other news;
• Ability to track notices under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), or both;
• New features to enable users to manage their profiles and full text requests more efficiently;
• Immediate access to available full texts; and
• Direct linkages to information on WTO TBT & SPS activities.