Background
The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Memorandum of Understanding on Standardisation, Quality Assurance, Accreditation and Metrology (SQAM MoU) was signed by SADC Member States in 2000. The SADC SQAM MoU provided for five (5) structures to facilitate the implementation of SADC Trade Protocol with regards to Standards, Technical Regulations and Conformity Assessment issues and these are;
- SADC Expert Group on Standardization, Quality Assurance, Accreditation and Metrology (SQAMEG),
- SADC Cooperation in Legal Metrology (SADCMEL),
- SADC Cooperation in Measurement and Traceability (SADCMET),
- SADC Cooperation in Standardization (SADCSTAN), and
- SADC Cooperation in Accreditation (SADCA).
The SADC SQAM MoU was succeeded by the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Annex to the SADC Protocol on Trade which made provision for the establishment of the two (2) other Committees namely; the SADC Technical Regulations Liaison Committee (SADCTRLC) and the SADC Technical Barriers to Trade Stakeholder Committee (SADCTBT SC).
The SADC Technical Regulations Liaison Committee (SADCTRLC), has been established to promote and facilitate the implementation of the SADC Technical Regulation Framework.
What are technical regulations?
Regulations in general, refer to a set of instruments that governments use to institute requirements for enterprises and people.
Technical regulations, in particular, refer to a set of requirements used by governments to protect consumers and the environment and thus to determine compulsory requirements for product or service characteristics or the related processes that should be complied with.
Technical regulations also have specific administrative provisions and testing, certification and other conformity assessment requirements with which compliance is mandatory for purposes of public safety, health and environmental issues.
Why was a SADC Technical Regulations Liaison Committee (SADCTRLC) established?
SADC countries want to prevent the use of technical regulations as trade barriers and are therefore looking for ways to facilitate SADC trade through the implementation of common and harmonized technical regulations. In this regard, SADC Ministers of Trade and Industry adopted the SADC Technical Regulation Framework as enshrined in the TBT Annex to the SADC Protocol on Trade.
The SADC Technical Regulation Framework Objective
The objective of the Framework is to identify, prevent and eliminate unnecessary Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs) amongst the Member States and between SADC and other Regional and International Trading Blocks through harmonized standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures in order to facilitate and increase trade in goods and services. This includes:
a) The use of consultation, participation and exchange of information processes when technical regulations are developed, amended and implemented;
b) The appropriate use of common performance based standards based on international standards rather than prescriptive standards as a basis for technical regulations;
c) The withdrawal of a conflicting national standard once the text of a regional standard has been developed and approved in accordance with the agreed SADCSTAN procedures;
d) The relevant use of impact and risk assessment to inform technical regulatory decisions;
e) The use of appropriate international measures to promote the acceptance of the conformity assessment results among Member States;
f) The review, update and modification of technical regulations to meet changing needs; and
g) The co-ordination amongst various institutions that are part of the technical regulation framework.
The principles that are applied to technical regulations
In terms of rights and obligations SADC countries confirmed their commitment to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement principles of non-discrimination, necessity, prevention of trade restrictiveness, proportionality, the use of equivalent and internationally harmonised measures, transparency and special and differential treatment.
Tools available to regulators
The SADC Technical Regulation Liaison Committee links the work on technical regulations with the work on standards, accreditation and metrology. The aim is to ensure that the other committees that are responsible for standardisation develop appropriate standards and conformity assessment procedures that respond to the needs of the regulators.