The Programme “Targeted assistance to strengthen regional trade-related quality infrastructure through intra-ACP partnerships - CROSQ, ARSO and PIFS” brought 4 regions together: Caribbean Community, Africa, Pacific IsIands States and Europe.
The programme was aimed to:
• Contribute to the activation of intra-regional quality infrastructure agreements in support of market access and improved trade performance through improved capacity in standards and conformity assessment development and implementation in CARICOM. This was facilitated through a feasibility study for developing trade capacity through enabling sustainability Standards and associated conformity assessment modalities by modelling the success of the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) and a comparability study on standards development with European Standards Organization / European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CEN/CENELEC).
• Support the development of an optimized quality infrastructure in the Pacific Region for enhanced trade competitiveness. This entailed enhancing the understanding and capacity for developing Quality Infrastructure (QI) in the Pacific Islands Forum States (PIFS) through sharing the experiences of CROSQ, ARSO and CEN/CENELEC.
The focus of the support programme was the exchange of experiences to enhance capacities in improving standards and conformity assessment services, identifying best practices in implementing sustainable standards, and build quality infrastructure in the Pacific utilizing Caribbean and African support.
• TradeCom II sponsored a deep understanding of standard development and conformity assessment in the Caricom Region through CROSQ, developing linkages and knowledge sharing between Caribbean, Africa and Pacific;
• Development and implementation of standards in the Caribbean for increased exports and for human security issues, and importance of harmonising standards for trade facilitation purposes;
• Feasibility of implementing voluntary sustainability standards in CARICOM using the ARSO Experience;
• Developing Quality Infrastructure in the Pacific Islands despite isolation, limited resources and a different level in regional and global trade integration; especially using the CROSQ model for small island developing states
• Success of South-South collaboration.
Impact of the actions/programmes or outcomes:
• Development and implementation of standards in the Caribbean;
• Developing Quality Infrastructure in the Pacific Islands;
• South-South collaborations.
Additional information:
• This video was produced within the final validation and training workshop of the “Targeted assistance to strengthen regional trade-related quality infrastructure through intra-ACP Partnership” support under the EU-ACP TradeCom II Programme.
References (websites, documents etc., attached):
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ65kuI7WNA&t=126s&ab_channel=TradecomII...
• http://www.tradecom-acpeu.org/page.cfm?title_page=Video
• https://website.crosq.org/index.php/media-and-resources/item/133-crosq-m...
Contact persons for additional information:
1. Gian Paolo de Pinto, TradeCom II Programme, g [dot] depinto [at] tradecom-acpeu [dot] org;
2. Riccardo Tintis, TradeCom II Programme, r [dot] tintis [at] tradecom-acpeu [dot] org
