ITC's Export Quality Management Services

Highlights from ITC's recent activities in quality management, featured below, provide a glimpse into ITC's trade support services to businesses and government bodies for export-related quality management issues.

Export quality in Arab countries 

The Export Quality Management Service of ITC assisted several Arab countries in training national experts and establishing national information facilities on provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements for Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS). This is part of a regional project for the Arab Industrial Development and Mining Organisation (AIDMO), funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

ITC presented recommendations from the project to directors of national standards bodies in 13 Arab countries, in the context of the 13th Meeting of the High Consultative Committee on Standardization for Arab countries.

Two regional Arab seminars on business implications of the TBT and SPS Agreements and the TBT and SPS Enquiry Points will take place in Cairo and Riyadh in November 1999.

Seminar in francophone Africa 

ITC organized a regional African Seminar on TBT and SPS for ten francophone African countries in Conakry in August 1999. Forty-nine participants from Islamic Development Bank member countries - Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Comoros, Djibouti, Guinea, Mali, the Niger, Senegal and Togo - were present. The seminar was financially supported by the Islamic Development Bank and hosted by the Guinean Central Bank.

Quality management study visits 

ITC organized several technical study visits in recent months to Australia, Malaysia and the United States for the Abu Dhabi Municipality's Food and Environmental Control Centre, as part of a project to introduce ISO 9000 quality management systems. The project is funded by UNDP on a cost-sharing basis with the Abu Dhabi Municipality.

Quality management training will also be integrated into the Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme for African countries of ITC, UNCTAD and WTO. A two-week training programme will be held in Europe this year for managers and operators of TBT and SPS Enquiry Points from seven African countries - Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania.

For more information, contact Enrique Sierra, Senior Adviser on Export Quality Management, at sierra@intracen.org