Eswatini Standards Authority (ESWASA) has developed about 400 standards that have been harmonised in the Africa Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) and the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).
ESWASA Executive Director Ncamiso Mhlanga said they developed the standards based on demand from local companies that want to trade.
Mhlanga was speaking during the training on the ARSO programmes and awareness creation on the role of harmonised African standards as enabling tools facilitating trade under the AfCFTA, held at the ERS Headquarters in Ezulwini yesterday.
He said as a ministry of commerce, industry and trade, they were discussing the country’s participation in the Africa Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) that is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
He said in total, there were about 7 000 standards that needed to be developed that would facilitate the trading of African countries, and Eswatini had managed to develop the 400.
He also said during the training, they also looked into what standard does Eswatini need to trade and what kind of infrastructure such as laboratories and testing, that needed to be put in place because some of these products needed to comply with standards before they are sent out to the lucrative markets.
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“We have ARSO Secretary General Dr Hermogene Nsengimana and his team to come to build capacity of the local quality infrastructure institutions with regards to issues of what we need as a country for us to trade effectively in the AfCFTA.
“For now, we are nearing 400 standards as ESWASA that we have developed, some have been harmonised by ARSO and the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). The way we do it is based on demand from our local companies that want to trade.
“However, we are still low in industrialisation and manufacturing, and for us to take many development standards we have to be led by the demand created by the manufacturing sector,” he said.
He added that the county had not really raised a high demand, and the ability to develop many papers that will sit on the shelves will not be a good investment for the resources that government has put in place.
However, out of all the 7 000 standards that are required to effectively trade under all the tariffs that the agreement has set, he said, ARSO has adopted already 2 400 and they were picking which ones would be a priority for the country and that is going to be informed by what generally the country wants to market.
The executive director also noted that the requirement in the export market was that one could sell without having proper certification mark of the product, which informed that the bigger companies that are operating in the country were able to meet the demands and sell.
“We have, however, had situations where our vegetables have been rejected because they were not meeting certain standards.
“Our manufacturing capacity is still at local consumption, we need to do more to export.
“Those who are able to export have nailed it and have been able to meet all the demands,” added Mhlanga.
Further, he noted that there were still different regulators to really put together the standardisation documents. However, he said his observation was that they did not have the capacity and there might be a need to actually be the one developing the technical regulation, especially for the most critical products that need to be done. Mhlanga added that the country still do not have this infrastructure in terms of where they check and test the products that are consumed locally and for export, saying this was a challenge for the country to put its house in order to be able to trade.
“We should all work towards looking into what standard does Eswatini need to trade and what kind of infrastructure such as laboratories and testing that need to be put in place, because some of these products need to comply with standards before they are sent out to the lucrative markets,” further stated Mhlanga.
Eswatini Observer Press Reader
