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 26‑28 March 2025 under Agenda Item 7.a on Updates 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 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. However, due to countries' responses to the consumer needs for safety and quality of 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 reason, the overall goal of the international quality assurance community has been to promote a system whereby products are "once tested (harmonization of standards and technical regulations), once certified (harmonization of conformity assessment), accepted everywhere (harmonization of accreditation)".

1.2.  On the same note, 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 difficult and expensive 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, 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. For Africa, with different Regional Economic Communities (Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), the East African Community (EAC), the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC)) and different regulatory policies, the challenge of variant mandatory and conflicting SPS and TBT measures continue to remain a threat especially to intra-African twhich remains low at 16% (TRALAC/UNECA 2018), hence the need for a common regulatory framework.

1.3.  The WTO encourages harmonization, use of equivalence and mutual recognition in the bilateral free trade agreements, such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). This is based on the fact that 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 harmonized conformity assessment systems. But even with harmonized standards and conformity assessment regimes, without mutual recognition arrangements of accreditation and certification systems, the harmonized 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 Multilateral Recognition Arrangements (MLAs) such as the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) Frameworks, and with other Members for the mutual acceptance of conformity assessment results.

1.4.  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 harmonized regulatory framework that ensures "once tested – once certified – accepted everywhere" and as also provided for under the AfCFTA 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.

1.5.  Currently, through its programmes and based on the WTO TBT/SPS Agreement, the AfCFTA TBT Annex 6 and SPS Annex 7, the African Quality Policy and the African Continental Technical Regulatory Framework, and in partnerships/cooperation with stakeholders, including the WTO, ARSO continues to carry out activities and initiatives directed at achieving a common regulatory framework for Africa (One Market-One Standard), with a focus to standards harmonization (in key priority sectors/products); conformity assessment (Eco Mark Africa, ARSO Dual Marking certification); ARSO Consumers Committee; ARSO DISNET and the awareness and training activities.