South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
The 22nd Meeting of the East African Community Standards Management Committee on Thursday approved 59 new standards for goods and services, in a bid to enhance trade and economic contribution in the region.
Eng. Yona Afrika, Chairperson of the East Africa Standards Committee, said standards cover a wide range of areas including milk, fish, petroleum and drinking water.
“We did our deliberations on almost all the agendas, and we concluded and approved 59 standards to be submitted to the Standards Committee in the next two weeks,” said Afrika during the closure the five-day meeting in Juba.
Afrika stated the resolutions agreed upon at the meeting would be sent to the East African Standards Committee for approval.
“We have done this approval through the sub-sectors, like 12 sub-sectors, one of them include the milk sub-sector, petroleum sub-sector, and cosmetics sub-sector. There’s also the drinking water sub-sector, which I think in South Sudan is one of the contributing sub-sectors in the economy and probably in the export as well,” he revealed.
Afrika highlighted the importance of harmonized standards in fostering regional trade.
“We think it’s very important that we concentrate on standardizing our regional trading goods, and also we have established how to do the product, a new product in the EAC, a probably new product for cross-border business; this is gum Arabic,” he said.
Gloria Nyoka Joseph, Executive Director of the South Sudan National Bureau of Standards (SSNBS), disclosed that the discussion also touched on adaptation of gum arabic among East African Community products.
“I am also glad to hear that also the standard for gum arabic is also to be adapted and to be also harmonized at the AEC level and it becomes a regional standard. This gives us really a milestone that we are going out, we are going to trade out, and our exports are also going to go to the region and ahead of the region,” said Nyoka.
She said that South Sudan is expected to host the meeting of two EAC technical committees upon approval from in Arusha, Tanzania.
The EAC Standards Committee, established in 2006, plays a crucial role in coordinating, monitoring, and implementing the harmonization of standards across the community.
Its efforts are pivotal in ensuring the quality control of goods produced by member states, thereby supporting the region’s economic integration and trade efficiency.
