ARSO UPDATE TO the TBT committee

INFORMATION PROVIDED BY the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO)

This document contains information provided by ARSO at the TBT Committee meeting of 5‑7 June 2024 under Agenda Item 7 (Update by Observers).

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1  Background Information

1.1  Introduction

1.1.  Due to their influence on trade and sustainable development, the world over, issues of Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) with regards to technical measures (standards, technical regulations, accreditation, conformity assessment and metrology measures), are taking central place as instruments of trade and government policy in unilateral, regional, and global trade contexts. But unfortunately, due to countries response to the consumer needs for safe and quality products and increased focus on sustainability requirements to respond to climate change mitigation measures, the growing number of inconsistent or ambiguous technical measures, world over, are creating a climate of uncertainty that is reducing the efficiency of business decisions. For this therefore, the overall goal of the international quality assurance community has been to promote a system whereby products are "once tested (harmonisation of standards and technical regulations), once certified (harmonization of conformity assessment), accepted everywhere (harmonization of accreditation)."

1.2.  In the same way, a high degree of geographical inconsistency, based on the WTO principle that all countries have the obligation and right to develop regulations to meet their legitimate objectives, it is becoming expensive and complicated for companies to operate multiple production runs to produce goods that need to comply with different quality requirements in different export markets and geographical locations. Therefore, while international/continental trade provide opportunities for companies to benefit from important economies of scale, the proliferation of different standards and technical regulations and different guidelines by which conformity assessment or accreditation are conducted have resulted in barriers to trade and drastically reduced these benefits from trading opportunities. Therefore, the overall goal of the international quality assurance community has been to promote a system whereby products are "once tested (harmonisation of standards and technical regulations), once certified (harmonization of conformity assessment), accepted everywhere (harmonization of accreditation)."

1.3.  The increasing number of TBTs in countries is linked to the fact that, WTO TBT Agreement takes into account the existence of legitimate divergences of preference, income, geographical and other factors between countries and accords to Members a high degree of flexibility in the preparation, adoption and application of their TBT and SPS measure, highlighting that "no country should be prevented from taking necessary regulatory measures to meet its legitimate Objectives" and for Africa, therefore, with different Regional Economic Communities (AMU, EAC, CEN-SAD, COMESA, ECCAS, ECOWAS, IGAD and SADC) and different SPS and TBTs regulatory policies, the challenge of variant mandatory and conflicting SPS and TBT measures continue to remain a threat especially to intra-African trade which remains low at 16% (TRALAC/UNECA 2018). Therefore, evidently, from the 1980 Lagos Plan of action, 1991 Abuja Treaty to the AfCFTA Agreement, a forceful effort at streamlining African regulatory frameworks with regards to common standards and the related conformity assessment system at the regional and continental levels has been an appropriate priority for African leaders, trade and standards policymakers, with a clear goal of obtaining "One Standard-One Market".

1.4.  The WTO encourages harmonization, use of equivalence and mutual recognition in free trade agreements, such as the AfCFTA. This is based on the fact even when standards in different countries have been harmonized, the free flow of trade is inhibited if products are subjected to redundant testing and certification requirements in multiple export markets, this calls for harmonised conformity assessment systems. But even with harmonised standards and conformity assessment regimes, without mutual recognition arrangements of accreditation and certification systems, then harmonised standards and conformity assessment systems will not be effective enough. The WTO TBT Agreement under Article 6.3 strongly also encourages WTO Members to enter into negotiations, through the MLA, IAF, ILAC Frameworks, and with other Members for the mutual acceptance of conformity assessment results through Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRAs) and facilitate the international concept and goal of "Certified Once, Accepted Everywhere". Mutual recognition of accreditation and certification systems facilitate access to both domestic and international markets; provides the technical underpinning to domestic and international trade by promoting cross-border stakeholder confidence and acceptance of accredited test data and certified results, and will be instrumental in facilitating the free movements of Goods and Services and costs cutting as envisaged under the AfCFTA Protocol. The AfCFTA TBT Annex 6 provisions on standards, conformity assessments and accreditation indicate the need for harmonization and mutual recognition between the State parties. As a policy instrument, the AfCFTA Agreement, under the TBT Annex 6 and SPS Annex 7, addresses the TBTs and SPS issues, and binds all State parties to commit to their progressive elimination and calls for cooperation in their development, harmonisation and implementation, with the role of ARSO in harmonisation, capacity building and awareness creation (TBT Annex 6, Article 6) in the process defined.

1.5.  It is noted that consolidating the African continent into one single market through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) provides great opportunities for trading enterprises, businesses and consumers across Africa and with the enhanced intra-African trade, which UNECA estimates the AfCFTA to have the potential both to boost by 52% by eliminating import duties, and to double it if non-tariff barriers (NTBs), which also include technical barriers to trade (TBT, and addressed under the TBT Annex 6 and SPS Annex 7), are also reduced.

1.6.  It is being highlighted that this report is being presented when the Standardisation Community (including AU, UNECA, ARSO Member States, UNIDO, ISO, PTB, IEC, RECs, PAQI institutions, COTECNA, COLEAD, ASTM Int., ANSI, Intertek, BSI, SMIIC, SASO, OSP, IACO, AOAC, TSE, RNF), are heading to Abuja, Nigeria for the 2024 ARSO Week/the 30^th ARSO General Assembly being organised under the theme Educate an African fit for the 21^st Century- Building a Quality Culture - "One Market-One Standard". The Theme is based on the African Union declaration of the year 2024 as the "Year of Education", and on the theme: "Educate an African fit for the 21^st Century: Building resilient education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality, and relevant learning in Africa", and calling on governments and Stakeholders to "accelerate progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4)". It well highlights the symbiotic relationship between sustainable development, industrialisation, trade and standardisation, and therefore, the need for promoting and undertaking activities that are aimed at creating awareness on the role of standardisation in sustainable development. The African Day of Standardisation Forum (on 19 June), and Partnerships for effective Quality Infrastructure event on 21 June, create opportunity for discussions and partnerships on the role of ARSO and the standardisation community in promoting "One Test - One Certificate-Accepted everywhere".

1.7.  Going forward, the greatest challenge for Africa is, therefore, to take advantage of the AfCFTA opportunities as well as good regulatory practices as contained under the WTO TBT and SPS Agreements, which highlight the need for the harmonization of both standards and conformity assessment procedures (testing, Inspection, certification), to promote an effective harmonised regulatory framework that ensures "One Test - One Certificate-Accepted everywhere" and as also provided for under the TBT Annex 6, Article 5 as well as SPS Annex 7, Article 8.1 which provide for greater cooperation among the TBT and SPS Stakeholders in the development of the TBT and SPS Measures, while ensuring Transparency (TBT Annex 6 Article 8, SPS Annex 7 Article 4) and Capacity Building ( TBT Annex 6 Article 12, SPS Annex 7 Article 14) in the process, which is also in line with the ARSO Mandate for the promotion of harmonized Regulatory Framework in Africa.