Context: The East African community (EAC) comprises of five countries namely: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda with a total population of about 143.5 million people with a GDP of US$110.3 billion as of 2014. The EAC Common Market Protocol provides for “accelerated economic growth and development EAC Partner States through the attainment of free movement of goods”. The EAC Customs Union Protocol Article 13 provides a legal structure for the development of an EAC mechanism to identify, monitor and remove NTBs in the EAC. This was done by enactment of an East African Standard Quality Assurance Metrology and Testing Act (EAC SQMT Act). One of the aims of the EAC SQMT Act is to ensure that SQMT of products produced or traded within the EAC facilitates development and trade. Section 3e provides for the “harmonization of the national and East African standards with international standards to reduce cost, enhance compliance and develop trade opportunities” and Section 24(2) of the Act,  provides for EAC Partner States to have quality marks and recognize them as equal to their own which facilities free movement of certified products in the EAC. Issues: Unharmonized standards and other trade documentation and duplicative inspections and testing hamper trade, causing overall delays and increases the cost of doing business. In the EAC Secretariat’s March 2012 quarterly review on the status of NTBs in the EAC, both documentation and inspections were targeted for harmonization. José Maciel the Director of NTBs and Standards at TMA noted that standards were...

Context: The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) was established as a semi-autonomous body by an Act of Parliament in 1983. UNBS is mandated through the Act to develop and promote standardisation, quality assurance, laboratory testing and metrology to enhance the competitiveness of local industry to strengthen Uganda's economy and promote quality, safety and fair trade. Quality includes all product attributes that influence its value to consumers, whereas safety includes all measures intended to protect human health. In a globalized economy, the role of NSBs is changing from the regulatory role to trade facilitation. There is need to recognize the importance of the impact of standards and quality awareness services on the economy. Issues: Lower public awareness on standards, quality products and best practices hinder competitiveness and economic growth. Demand for product quality appears to be generally lower in Uganda as the stakeholders do not perceive quality issues as critical to domestic sales in the country. This is attributed to a number of reasons such as; poverty that forces local consumers to tolerate lower-quality products and lack of consumer awareness about product safety and quality. The consumers are not aware of the impact of standards like Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs), animal diseases control procedures and there are no strong consumer organizations that compel retailers and producer groups to provide higher quality goods. The lack of awareness regarding SQMT issues are among the constraints that restrict effective participation of stakeholders in both regional and global standards-related activities. Method: In order to...

Context: Burundi is a landlocked country whose manufacturing sector is still in infancy stages and the country is heavily dependent on bilateral and multilateral aid (Burundi Public Expenditure Review by World Bank, 2013). The Burundi Bureau of Standards (BBN) is the public body in charge of standards and conformity related activities in Burundi. The WTO’s 2005 World Trade Report, recognizes that technical regulations, standards and procedures for determining conformity to requirements such as testing can have positive effects on competition at international and domestic trade because they ensure consumer safety; increase the transparency of product information and compatibility of products. Issues: The link between standards, conformity assessment procedures such as testing, inspection and certification are important in increasing trade. Quality testing laboratories provide the basic facts for the documentation of product properties that are required for international and domestic trade and are often the basis for product certification. In order to establish the facts regarding product properties and quality, effective and efficient testing laboratories are required. The type of laboratory needed depends on the needs and structure of the processing industries, as well as other manufacturing industry in the country. The cost of equipping, maintaining and operating laboratories is relatively high, and careful planning by the NSBs is required if resources are limited. Enhancing production practices, improving on quality assurance and management systems by firms and product testing results to respond to changing technical requirements of trading partners is key in improving capacity to meet both domestic and international markets...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Context: Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) is a statutory body established under the Standards Act (CAP 496) of the laws of Kenya to ensure that quality products and services are accessible in the market. Under the Kenyan government, all people in Kenya have a right to access quality products and services in the market. This is done through product certification and system certification schemes that are managed by the KEBS. In order to produce certified products, a culture of quality needs to be entrenched among the stakeholders especially the consumers and the manufacturers. The World Bank report on the state of Kenya’s economy (8th edition, June 2013) highlighted the need to address the bottlenecks that affected the cost of doing business in Kenya. In order to promote the competitiveness of the Kenyan locally manufactured products, certificates and other types of conformity assessments documents have to be issued by a recognized institution such as accredited laboratories and certification bodies.   Issue: In the EAC domestic trading system, the major non-tariff barriers (NTB) is the variation in certification, testing and inspection practices, and standards used. Unless trade partners use similar or harmonized standards and conformity assessment procedures and recognize each other's certification results, the costly problem of discriminatory, non-transparent, and unnecessary obstacles to trade will persist. Quality products are a pre-requisite for market entry in the EAC and beyond. However, NTBs such as standards, technical regulations and poor quality infrastructure are major impediments to trade in the region. Kenya needs to demonstrate...