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 5‑8 November 2024 under Agenda Item 6 (Update by Observers).
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1 ARSO ACTIVITIES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WTO TBT AGREEMENT
1.1 Background information
1.1. Due to their influence on Trade and sustainable development, the
World over, issues of Technical Barriers to Trade 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.
1.2. For this therefore, ARSO continues to implement its standardisation
activities under the overall goal of the international quality assurance
community 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. It is in this regard that, ARSO, an Intergovernmental Organisation
founded by the African Union (AU), formerly the Organisation of African Union
(OAU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), together
with Twenty One (21) African countries in 1977 and currently with 43 African
Member States, and an observer organization of the WTO since November 2015,
continues to pursue activities meant to achieve regulatory coherence in to
facilitate the international concept and goal of "Certified Once, Accepted
Everywhere" through: Standards Harmonisation, under 15 Priority Sectors
including Agriculture, Pharmaceuticals, Automative, Textile and Leather, 94 TCs
and where over 2042 common standards have been approved and published as
African Standards. Additionally, 141 were approved by 71st ARSO
Council in Casablanca, held on 4-7 November 2024. Conformity
Assessment activities that are also based on the ISO CASCO Toolkit; Mutual
Recognition Arrangements with the final Framework finalized to and adopted by
ARSO Council and GA during the 30th ARSO GA meetings 17–21 June
2024, in Abuja, Nigeria, and now being adopted by the AFCFTA as an Appendix to
the AfCFTA Agreement; Capacity Building and awareness creation including
Workshops where over 600 the new ARSO Standards Harmonisation Model on 22–23
August 2024; ARSO Annual Essay Competition with the current 2024/2025 finalised
under the theme Standardisation Education for the 21st Century
Development needs with reference to Quality education – SDG 4; ARSO Monthly
Webinar Series (Reference Laboratories and Quality Assurance, July 2024, Market
Surveillance and enforcement in Trade, August 2024, The Fourth Industrial
Revolution: Opportunity for Africa's sustainable development, September 2024, Promoting
Trade of the Textile and Leather Industry in Africa, October 2024);
Transparency and Notifications – In Cooperation with member States, WTO, AU,
AfCFTA Secretariat under the ARSO Documentation and Information Network/ARSO
DISNET and with a training held 2–4 October 2024 in Accra, Ghana, with
resource persons from WTO, ITC, UNECA and AfCFTA Secretariat. Development of
Regulatory Policy Instruments (AfCFTA TBT Annex 6, Articles 5, 6, 7, 8, where
the African Continental Technical Regulatory Framework was adopted by the AU on
17 May 2024; Promotion of Partnerships and Cooperations as per the WTO TBT
Agreement, Article 11, and AfCFTA TBT Annex 6, Article 11, with current
partners being – African Union, AfCFTA Secretariat, African RECs (EAC, COMESA,
ECOWAS, ECCAS, IGAD, COMESA, SADC, AMU) UN (UNECA, UNIDO, UNECE, UNCTAD), AfDB,
Afreximbank, AUDA-NEPAD, BSI, IEC, ISO, WTO, ITC, ITU, PTB-Germany, GSO, CROSQ,
QCI, SAC, AAAM, ASF, ATM, among the rest.
1.4. In conclusion, ARSO recognises the fact WTO encourages Harmonization
of standards and Conformity Assessment, use of equivalence and mutual
recognition in the bilateral free trade agreements, such as the AfCFTA, which
in turn also promotes the adoption of international standards and use of
harmonised standards, and in this regard, ARSO expresses its commitments to
continued collaboration with the WTO, based on the WTO TBT Agreement
requirements.
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