Today, the Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ms Alexandra Abrahams officially opened the 41st annual meeting of the SADC Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Structures. The three-day meeting is taking place at the Protea Hotel in Johannesburg.
In line with this year’s Southern African Development Community (SADC) theme which is: “Advancing Industrialisation, Agricultural Transformation, and Energy Transition for a Resilient SADC”, she highlighted that quality infrastructure is a critical component in facilitating rural development and industrialisation, in turn economic growth in the Southern region of the African continent.
The Technical Barriers to Regional Trade (TBT) Annex to the SADC Protocol on Trade, provides a framework for identification and elimination of trade barriers arising from application of diverging standards, technical regulations or conformity assessment procedures.
Abrahams said SADC’ s growing engagement in international Quality Infrastructure forums is encouraging, but there must be continued building of scientific, technical, and diplomatic capability to ensure global standards reflect Africa’s realities and support equitable participation.
She said this must be underpinned by deliberate investment in scientific excellence, technical depth, and coordinated diplomatic capability if we are to shape outcomes rather than respond to them.
“To achieve this, we must strengthen our national standards bodies, accreditation systems, and metrology institutes so that they can generate credible data, influence technical committees, and anchor Africa’s positions in evidence. This also requires building a cadre of skilled experts and negotiators who can engage consistently in global standard-setting platforms and ensure that emerging norms, whether in digital trade, green technologies, or advanced manufacturing, are informed by the production realities, development pathways, and regulatory capacities of our region,” she emphasised.
She said agricultural transformation, in particular, requires a change in how we approach quality infrastructure across the value chain.
“From primary production through to agro-processing and export, farmers and agri-enterprises must increasingly comply with stringent sanitary standards, traceability requirements, and sustainability benchmarks. Strengthening testing, certification, and inspection capacity within the agricultural sector is therefore essential to improve food security and productivity, and to unlock access to higher-value regional and international markets.”
As SADC continues to advance the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, the consolidation of standards, mutual recognition of conformity assessment, and the strengthening of institutional capability will be decisive. The Deputy Minister concluded by emphasising that a coordinated, well-resourced, and forward-looking approach to quality infrastructure will be essential if the region is to move towards an integrated, competitive, and resilient economic bloc that delivers sustained growth, expanded market access, and tangible opportunities for its people.
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