Ministers in charge of Quality in ECOWAS member States validate 53 drafts Harmonized Standards (ECOSTANDS)

Meeting in Niamey (Niger) from 19 to 20 October 2017, the ministers and representatives of the ministers in charge of quality of the ECOWAS member State have validated 53 drafts Harmonized Standards (ECOSTANDS). The meeting recorded the presence of the members of the Technical Management Committee (TMC), the Directors of the National Standards Bodies or their representatives, the members of the Technical Standards Harmonization Committees (THC), representatives of the partner institutions (European Union, UNIDO, Hellen Keller International) and members of ECOWAS.

These draft harmonized standards concern agricultural products (THC1, 03), food products (THC2, 14), chemicals (THC3, 08), building materials (THC4, 23), electrotechnical products (THC5, 02) and tourism (THC6, 03). After validation, ministers and representatives of ministers recommended the 53 draft standards to the next ECOWAS Council of Ministers for adoption.

During the opening ceremony, on Thursday, October 19th, Mr. Bernard FRIEDLING, Chargé d'Affaires of the European Union in Niger, affirmed that "... the adoption of these standards can only be beneficial to national and regional companies and a factor in their development and competitiveness, irrespective of their size ".  Mr. Kalilou TRAORE, ECOWAS Commissioner in charge of Industry and Promotion of the Private Sector, recalled that the meeting was organized within the framework of the West Africa Quality System Program (WAQSP), which is one of the major programs of the ECOWAS Commission. "Today, it is the challenge of a regional Quality Infrastructure aligned with the best international standards that is playing out ... With ECOSHAM, ECOWAS demonstrates that it has resolutely taken up the issue of the regional standardization, an essential and unifying tool in the service of community integration", he said. For Niger's Minister of Industry, Abdou MAMAN, who chaired the meeting, quality issues are a decisive issue in the preservation of people's health and the protection of the environment. "The draft standards thus harmonized will allow our economic area to have trade facilitation tools for our products that will now be certified compliant and therefore competitive in international markets", he said, thanking the European Union and UNIDO for the implementation of the WAQSP.

Clink the following ling to see the list of standards :  http://www.waqsp.org/fr/node/1342