News Letter

Conformity Assessment: An important tool needed to facilitate free trade.

Guyana, like other developing countries, finds itself unprepared for integration into an open or global market place, and with its limited resources, is finding that the challenges of global competitiveness are becoming extremely complicated and difficult.

The drive for economic development of Guyana is closely associated with its ability to export locally manufactured products, hence for the last decade it has been involved in negotiating many multilateral and bilateral trade agreements. However this increased in exportation will only be possible if we can provide assurance to the marketplace that these products meet requirements stipulated in standards/regulations and/or are being produced under recognised and acceptable management systems of the marketplace.

At the same time, there is a movement from commodities based export to more value added or consumer products. This means that the requirements for conformity assessment is more pronounced, for the commodities based products were being supplied for reprocessing whilst the consumer products are for direct consumption.

Conformity assessment activities such as testing, inspection and certification offer an opportunity for that assurance to be provided to the marketplace and the requirements for these activities are all stipulated in the trade agreements negotiated.

Recognising that conformity assessment activities can expedite or seriously hinder the free flow of goods in international commerce, these agreements establishes procedural requirements for conformity assessment schemes to avoid the development of unnecessary obstacles to trade. They specify that conformity assessment procedures be prepared, adopted and applied so as to grant access for suppliers of like product originating from other countries (which are signatories to the agreement) no less favourable conditions than those produced nationally or origination in another country, and encourage the use of international standards in this whole process.

Conformity assessment activities in Guyana, like the majority of other developing countries are primarily the functions of the government regulatory agencies. This practice is not in conformance with those of the developed countries and has resulted in their results being questioned by the marketplace. The marketplace will continue to question the credibility of the results from these agencies, until such time that assurance can be provided by a third party that these agencies are operating to the relevant international standard. The standards that are recognised for these activities are: ISO 17020 for inspection bodies, ISO 17025 for laboratories conducting testing and calibration, and ISO guide 65 for bodies involved in certification.

The conformity assessment system operating in any country should be determined by the situation in that country and reflect the prevailing technical, economic and social conditions, and need, regardless of the type whether it is product certification, system certification or manufacturers/suppliers declaration. We need to be aware of the different types of conformity assessment activities and understand how to establish and operate them according to specified international standards and guidelines.

These agencies need to take the necessary steps to ensure that their operations are aligned to international practices so as to be able to provide results that will be accepted by all markets and facilitate export of locally manufactured products. At the same time, they would be better prepared to monitor products being imported that are substandard for the protection of local consumers.

For Guyana to benefit from international trade, continued market access and investment possibilities to drive its economic development process, we need to consider the principles that have been outlined for free trade in the various trade agreements and move to put in place the necessary infrastructure to address them.

Towards this effect, the National Committee for Conformity Assessment (NCCA) consisting of a number of organizations from government and private sector was established in January, 2004 with the goal of: “Improving the quality of life for all Guyanese through the development of an internationally recognized national system of conformity assessment in Guyana”. This committee is in the process implementing actions to achieve this goal.