Internationally Recognised Conformity Assessment and Consumer Protection System in Libya

To establish an internationally recognised conformity assessment and consumer protection  is one of the strategic instruments to improve safety and health in Libya, to upgrade the national quality infrastructure in Libya and to build up capacities of local experts in all related areas. The strategic approach aims to support Libya in it’s the ongoing accession process to WTO and to enable LNCSM becoming a peer partner in the field of Conformity Assessment and Consumer Protection on global level.

In recent years the globalization of trade has spread to nearly all countries of the world. The volume of imported and exported goods continues to rise. Consumers in most countries are offered goods from different sources and both consumers and public authorities are often not sure that imported goods conform to the health and safety norms in vigour in their countries.

This has lead to extensive testing of imported products in most countries whereby different national standards, mandatory technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures are applied. While these actions by the authorities are a justified response to increasing safety demands from citizens, they are causing unnecessary barriers to trade and an added cost burden for the manufacturers and traders which they ultimately transmit to the consumers themselves.

The Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was concluded in an attempt to eliminate those barriers or reduce them to a minimum. As countries increasingly adopt international standards as voluntary national standards and base their mandatory technical regulations on these international standards, the conformity assessment procedures become the main remaining obstacle to trade and the root cause of unnecessary testing and certification operations which result in delays in the delivery of goods and an extra cost burden.

Libya is today faced with this challenge: to protect the health and safety of its citizens and its environment through a valid national testing and conformity assessment system and at the same time to avoid creating unnecessary barriers to trade which are contrary to its obligations as a future member of the WTO.

The key to lowering technical barriers to international trade while ensuring the health and safety of citizens is to develop a valid conformity assessment infrastructure. This is a necessary condition for creating confidence in testing, inspection and certification operations and in the accreditation of laboratories and bodies carrying out those operations. Establishing such a conformity assessment infrastructure in Libya in line with international norms will ensure the international acceptance of certificates and test reports issued in Libya and the recognition of conformity assessment work carried out in the country.

The Libyan National Centre for Standardization and Metrology (LNCSM) has been entrusted by a Government decree with accreditation in addition to its other functions. LNCSM plans to upgrade the existing components of the national conformity assessment and market surveillance infrastructure and to establish such components that are lacking at present.  The objectives of this infrastructure are:

• to protect the health and safety of consumers, in particular form hazards due to unsafe imported goods;
• to facilitate the exchange of goods between industries and enterprises in the country;
• to facilitate export of local goods and ensure that they bring a fair price, in particular, export of products of small and medium enterprises.

All components of the national conformity assessment infrastructure will be upgraded or established in line with international standards and accepted practices.

In the near future Libya will possess a functioning conformity assessment and consumer protection system supported by consumer protection laws and an appropriate standards, conformity assessment and quality infrastructure.  LNCSM intends to be the driving force behind the establishment and upgrading of the different components of this infrastructure in line with international rules. This infrastructure will contribute greatly to the protection of health and safety of citizens, environmental protection and to raising the quality of life in the country in general.

The current Programme is a strategic tool designed to protect the health and safety of Libyan citizens, protect the environment and upgrade the national standards, conformity assessment and quality infrastructure in the country. It envisages building-up the capacities of local experts in all related fields and supporting the ongoing accession of Libya to the WTO.

The Programme has as a primary objective the upgrading of LNCSM to become an equal partner in the fields of conformity assessment at the global level.

The Programme envisages the following activities among others:

•       Awareness-raising campaigns
•       Personnel and institutional capacity building through:
•       Analysis of training needs;
•       Holding of seminars and workshops;
•       Practical on-the-job training of specialists and of trainers
•       International study tours;
•       Participation in international organizations and associations.

In the framework of this Programme LNCSM will closely cooperate with leading international bodies active in the field of conformity assessment as well as with local industries and public authorities. The Programme will concentrate on health, safety and environmental issues.

The activities to be undertaken in the framework of this Programme are designed to fit the needs and strategy of LNCSM.