The CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) recently reported in its quarterly newsletter about the regional benefits that the ACP Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Programme has brought to the region, since March 2013.
The TBT is a programme, funded by the European Union at the request of ACP Group and implemented by AESA, that supports key ACP actors by strengthening the capacity of Quality Infrastructure (QI) institutions to implement TBT agreements and assisting economic operators with their compliance ability.
So far, the TBT Programme has supported 130 project interventions to key beneficiaries such as bureaux of standards, accreditation bodies, laboratories and economic operators and trade associations. The support generally assumes the form of short-term trade capacity building measures such as training, drafting legal and policy framework, developing certification schemes and improving the business approach of QI institutions.
According to the article, the TBT Programme has been particularly successful for the CROSQ, helping pursue the following objectives:
(1) a regional TBT, Information Management Systems and Enquiry Point Committee formulated and work plan activated;
(2) WTO-TBT Committee Observer status achieved;
(3) Three regional Writing TechnicalRegulations and Methods of Referencing Standards workshops held and culminating in one regional workshop to review associated pilot projects;
(4) E-learning training course on Legal Metrology developed and shared internationally;
(5) Participation on the TBT Programme’s Steering Committee (PSC) that oversights the Project Management Unit (PMU) in Brussels;
(6) Attendance at the TBT Programme’s Knowledge Dissemination Workshop on TBT Good Practices in January 2017 in Nairobi, Kenya.
For more information, find attached the CROSQ Standard Quarterly Newsletter
and check the CROSQ's webste at: https://www.crosq.org/index.php/projects/10th-edf-crip-epa-tbt
Date: Jeudi, 2017 - 10 - 26
