Publicatie van de Maand: Juli 2000

Tekst overgenomen met toestemming van:
ISO-BULLETIN, juli 2000 (COMMENT)

Geschreven door: Dudley B. Rhynd, Director (BNSI) Barbados national Standards Institute



The Caribbean response to access markets

Trade liberalization and globalization in the world economy has intensified international competitiveness in the production of goods and services. The World Trade Organization's rules for governing international trade has brought into sharp focus the importance of international standards and conformity assessment procedures in removing technical barriers to trade.

Most of the Caribbean countries are signatories to the WTO Agreements and are parties to the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. Many have also accepted the Code of Good Practice for the preparation, adoption and application of standards.

Caribbean countries are at varying stages of development as far as adequate standards infrastructure is concerned. Most of the countries have not had many years of systematic integrated standardization measures in place. The international trading environment now calls for equal treatment, a move towards removal of former concessional trading arrangements for products such as sugar, rum and bananas, which are foreign exchange earners, the use of international standards as a basis for international trade, and the use of standards which govern trading policies such as the tying of trade to environmental protection.

The Caribbean also has to deal with the subject of the inclusion of labour standards in trade agreements. This issue will require greater analysis in the region on matters such as the economic impact on common labour standards on trade, and economic development in general.

In an effort to expand markets for goods and services, the Caribbean countries have been negotiating bilateral and multilateral trading arrangements. Caribbean countries are also engaged in the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), including 34 countries, by 2005.

In all these negotiations, standards play a pivotal role for gaining access to markets. What has been the Caribbean response to these standards requirements in order not to be marginalized in international trade ?

The establishment of the Caricom* Single Market and Economy (CSME) constitutes the measured institutional response to current developments present in the international community as a means of safeguarding and promoting the fundamental values of the people of the Caribbean.

A programme on the Development of Standards Bodies in the region is in progress with the help of the Caribbean Community Secretariat and the Caribbean Development Bank.

The positive decision by the Caricom* Council of Trade and Economic Development (COTED) to establish an Intergovernmental Body, the Caricom* Regional Organization of Standards and Quality (CROSQ), is an indication of the realization of Governments of the importance of standards and related activities in trade development.

The FTAA negotiations will involve 34 countries of the Western Hemisphere at varying levels of standards infrastructural development, The fact of underdevelopment is expected to be taken into account in arriving at an agreement that assimilates the state of-the-art in standards activities while at the same time not marginalizing in trade the countries of smaller economies of the Caribbean. After all, the strict adherence to the rules should also be matched by the morality of the results.

There is a need for continued technical assistance for the region in the critical areas of standards infrastructure and metrology. There is a concern that technical requirements are increasing and posing new barriers to market entry, and rising even as tariff-related barriers are falling around the world.

The special and differential treatment requested for smaller economies during multilateral negotiations should be seen not as an excuse for backing out from the "state of the art" in standards activities, but as a request for staggered implementation of requirements, flexibility for bilateral arrangements, and the needed assistance for trading partners for a win-win result.

There is a continued role for ISO in building standards expertise and facilitating standards related development. The initiative of the World Bank to assist in enterprise competitiveness in the Caribbean through ISO management system standards is most welcomed.

*   The Caribbean Community (Caricom), established by the treaty of Chagurarnas,
     Comprises the following Caribbean countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize,
     Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Trinidad
     and Tobago, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Surinam, and Haiti.