Source : UNIDO website
The Permanent Representative of Switzerland to UNIDO, Ambassador Rudolf Schaller and UNIDO Director-General Carlos Magariños, signed a Trust Fund Agreement on 26 September for a project that will enhance Tanzania’s export capacity. Scheduled to run for three years with a budget of some US$2 million, the project will assist Tanzania overcome existing, emerging and potential export barriers. In line with UNIDO’s Trade Capacity Building Initiative, it will increase Tanzania’s capacity to satisfy the growing number of investors and buyers who are demanding standards and testing certificates as “tickets of admission” to a range of trading and partnership activities.
Gerardo Patacconi, one of UNIDO’s Trade Capacity Building specialists, told UNIDOScope that a very good synergy has developed between UNIDO’s Trade Capacity Building Inititiative and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (seco) Trade and Clean Technology Co-operation Programme led by Jean-Pierre Cuendet. “The Tanzania project was one of a number of projects listed for UNIDO implementation on Switzerland’s submission to the November 2004 meeting of the WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) ” said Mr. Patacconi (see WTO document G/TBT/W/247 ). “We have a developed a working arrangement with SECO that ensures a win-win outcome for the donor, the recipient and the implementing agency” he continued. He referred to the document submitted by the Swiss to the WTO TBT Committee as describing the overall approach of Switzerland in the field of standards and technical regulations in a broad sense. To quote the document, the Swiss approach “encompasses not only TBT-related standards, but also SPS ( Sanitary and Phytosanitary ) measures [standards related to food safety, and plant and animal health] and even non-governmental labels, provided that these are relevant in international trade.
“The Swiss programme of technical cooperation in the field of standards and technical regulations aims at supporting developing countries and transition economies in effectively benefiting from market access opportunities in the world trading system by assisting them in meeting the requirements of international markets. …Since the Doha Ministerial Conference in November 2001, the Swiss programme in the field of standards and technical regulations has been further strengthened and expanded to address the importance of having sound and efficient standard-related institutions, such as standardization, accreditation, and conformity assessment bodies, including certification agencies, metrology and testing laboratories.”
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