| Overview : In any given market, manufacturers and distributors cannot be given a free rein for their products and processes, especially for those that may endanger the health and safety of consumers or damage the environment. Consequently, governments intervene by establishing technical regulations and other measures to prevent market failures and protect consumers as well as the environment. However, technical regulations can impede trade if they are improperly elaborated or established for illegitimate objectives. There is thus a need for a framework to minimize obstacles that could arise from technical regulations in trade. This need is met by the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement), which provides rules for the elaboration of technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures to ensure that these do not create unnecessary barriers to trade, and the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement), which concerns the application of food safety and plant and animal health measures (regulations). Technical regulations should, as far as possible, be based on international standards so that in principle the same product could get access to various markets. Once technical regulations are promulgated, they need to be enforced so that they achieve the objective of their promulgation. The enforcement of technical regulations should be done in such a manner that their legitimate objectives are fulfilled without putting unnecessary burden on business. This can be achieved by an effective market surveillance system, combined when required, with pre-market controls. There is therefore need to conduct a documentary and field survey of the Malawian situation with regards to technical regulations, standards, conformity assessment procedures and SPS measures and their enforcement. This process has to involve the gathering of data on technical regulations, analyzing their alignment to the provisions of the WTO TBT and SPS Agreements and assessing the status of their enforcement. This assignment will be undertaken and supported in terms of the “Development of a Robust Standardization, Quality Assurance, Accreditation and Metrology (SQAM) infrastructure in Malawi” project (hereafter referred to as “the SQAM Project), funded by the European Union (EU), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Malawi Government. |
