Harare, (New Ziana) – Technical barriers to trade (TBT) in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) come under the spotlight during meetings of regional trade institutions scheduled for Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe from Monday to Friday next week, the regional body has said.
The TBT Annex to the SADC Protocol on Trade established a framework for identification and elimination of TBTs among SADC Member States as well as between SADC and other regions.
The annex established SADC TBT Cooperation Structures, with mandates covering Standardization, Quality assurance, Accreditation and Metrology (SQAM).
In a statement on Wednesday, the SADC secretariat said the 40th SADC TBT cooperation structures meetings will be held at the Peniel Retreat Centre in the resort city.
It will be attended by institutions that deal with standards development, scientific industrial and legal metrology, accreditation, development and enforcement of technical regulations, inspection, certification and testing representing all SADC Member States.
Also expected to attend are regional and international organisations and cooperation partners involved in SQAM matters.
The SADC TBT cooperation structures encompass several specialised bodies, each with a unique mandate to support the region’s quality infrastructure.
These include the SADC Cooperation in Standardization (SADCSTAN) which focuses on the harmonization of standards and encourages the adoption of international standards to reduce TBTs, the SADC Cooperation in Accreditation (SADCA) which works to ensure that accreditation bodies in the region meet international standards, promoting mutual recognition of conformity assessment results, as well as the SADC Cooperation in Legal Metrology (SADCMEL) deals with legal metrology, ensuring that measurements and measuring instruments comply with international standards and regulations.
The SADC TBT Stakeholders Committee (SADCTBTSC) provides a forum for stakeholder engagement, ensuring that both the private and public sectors are involved in the TBT harmonization process.
Coordinating the harmonization of technical regulations across the region, ensuring that they are transparent and reduce trade barriers is the responsibility of the SADC Technical Regulations Liaison Committee (SADCTRLC) while the SADC TBT Expert Group (SADCTBTEG) supports the SADC secretariat in an advisory capacity in dealing with TBT matters not covered by the other TBT cooperation structures.
The meetings of the SADC TBT Cooperation Structures have an overall objective of facilitating dialogue between institutions of the Member States dealing with SQAM issues.
It will be a platform for Member States to track the implementation of the SQAM activities at national level as well as identify and resolve any potential TBT in the region.
The meeting will also receive a report on the review of the TBT annex and deliberate on the way forward. The annual meetings will further review the activities performed by the secretariat in support of Member States regarding the implementation of the SQAM programme in the region.
The SADC Protocol on Trade aims at liberalising intra-regional trade in
goods and services, efficient production within SADC, contributing towards the improvement of the climate for domestic, cross-border and foreign investment, enhancing economic development, diversification of the industrial base of the region and establishing a free trade area.
Article 3 of the SADC Protocol on Trade calls for the elimination of barriers to intra-SADC trade through harmonisation of standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures by SADC Member States.
Meanwhile, SADC Ministers of Employment and Labour and Social Partners will, during the same period, be meeting at the Elephant Hills Hotel in the resort city to take stock of the implementation of Employment and Labour Sector Programmes and to decide on issues of strategic relevance to the region.
The meeting is also expected to discuss signature and ratification status of the SADC Protocol on Employment and Labour, Declaration of the promotion of Decent Works and the Elimination of Forced Labour in the fisheries sector in the SADC region and Development of the Revised Regional Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
New Ziana
