G/TBT/GEN/252  
 
3 September 2018  
(18-5479) Page: 1/3 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
 
ACTIVITIES OF THE CAR ICOM REGIONAL ORGANI SATION FOR STANDARDS  AND 
QUALITY (CROSQ) RELATED TO THE WORK OF THE WTO TBT COMMI TTEE  
STATEMENT  BY CROSQ  
This document contains information provided by the CROSQ  at the TBT Committee meeting of 
20-21 June 2018 under Agenda Item 5 (Observers).  
 
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY  
This report seeks to summarize the progress being made in development activities at four different 
levels since March 2017:  
 CROSQ and the CARIFORUM  
 CROSQ and the African, Caribb ean and Pacific Group of States (ACP)  
 CROSQ and the CARICOM.  
1  CROSQ -CARIFORUM RELATIONSH IP DEVELOPMENT STRAT EGY  
1.1  CROSQ developing a relationship with CELAC & COPANT in support of a CARIFORUM 
mandate:   
1.1.  CROSQ, as the network of 15 CARICOM National Standards Bureaux (NSBs), continue to 
develop a relationship with The Pan American Standards Commission (COPANT) as the doorway to 
The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). A number of the NSBs attended 
the COPANT General Assembly meeting in Jama ica April 2018, as hosted by the Bureau of 
Standards, Jamaica (BSJ) and the COPANT Secretariat. CROSQ featured on the following panels:  
 April 16 , 2018 : Panel of Regional and Sub -regional Organizations - Cooperation and 
Collaboration with COPANT (CROSQ, COP ANT, PASC, CEN, FINCA)  
 April 17 , 2018 : Panel of International and National Cooperation Organizations - Update 
of activities carried out and program of support to the region for 2018 (SCC, PTB, ANSI -
USAID, UNIDO, UNE)  
 April 18 , 2018 : Panel on Contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (OSN, 
SCC, UNIDO, PTB, ISO)  
1.2.  Additionally, (a) CROSQ co-moderated  the BSJ 's special one day workshop on April 19, 2018 
titled Natural Products - Medicinal Ganja in Support of Good Health  and (b) CROSQ is developing a 
relationship with UNIDO on UNIDO 's innovative work in the area of the development and 
promotion of National Quality Policies and related matters. CROSQ also has a very good working 
relationship with ISO, IEC and ASTM International.  G/TBT/GEN/252  
 
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  1.2  10th & 11th European Union - Economic Development Fund (EDF) Programme  
1.3.  In respect of the 10th EDF, the PTB  (German Metrology Institute) - INDOCAL  (Dominican 
Republic NSB) - CROSQ Project close -out session occurred at the March 2017 Council meeting.  The 
Project spend  and work efficiencies each averaged at 92% much to the satisfaction of the 
CARIFORUM Secretariat and the European Union (EU).  In respect of the 11th EDF (2018 – 2020) , 
CROSQ has taken the lead to further plan the new R egional Quality Infrastructure (RQI)  project 
with detailed activities and budget for eventual consideration and finalization with our partners - 
PTB and INDOCAL.  
2  CROSQ -ACP RELATIONSHIP DEV ELOPMENT STRATEGY  
2.1  The ACP relationship started with CROSQ being awarded three projects under the 
ACP-TBT Project Programme  which ended in June 2017 .  
2.1.  These successfully executed projects resulted in:  
 The formulation of the Regional TBT, Information Management Systems and Enquiry 
Point (TIE) Committee and CROSQ achieving WTO -TBT Committee Observer status;  
 Three regional workshops on Writing Technical Regulations and Methods of Referencing 
Standards culminating with three case studies on developing local Regulatory Impact 
Assessments (RIAs) and Technical Regulations and then having one regional workshop 
to share the lessons learnt and experiences  
 E-learning training course on Legal Metrology; and attendance at the ACP -TBT Project 's - 
Knowledge Dissemination Workshop on TBT Good Practices  
2.2.  CROSQ is also collaborating  with the ACP Secretariat in seeking funds from the EU to start a 
second phase of this TBT Programme, and to include SPS matters.  
2.3.  In respect of Trade Matters, particularly Quality Infrastructure (QI) in aid of Trade Policy and 
Trade Facilitation Agreement implementation , the ACP - TRADECOM 11 Prog ramme, has just 
accepted for technical assistance, two projects submitted by CROSQ.   
2.4.  One project is to activate QI - Trade support relationships between ARSO (African 
Organization for Standardization) and CROSQ; CEN (European Committee for Standardization)  and 
CROSQ and the PIF (Pacific Island Forum) and CROSQ. The other project is to activate the 
workplan to bring the regional TIE Committee to full effective active status.  
3  CROSQ -CARICOM RELATIONSHIP  DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY   
3.1  CARICOM Strategic Plan and the new  Community Operational Plan (COP) 2017/18  
3.1.  The newly formed CARICOM Strategic Plan (2015/19) was the first for the region and is the 
single uniting force for the CARICOM Secretariat (CS), its organs and bodies, Community 
Institutions, Member States (MS), CA RICOM Ambassadors and regional citizenry. CROSQ 
responded to relevant actions items under the theme of Economic Resilience - Accelerated 
Implementation and Access to the CARICOM Single Market and Economy and Building 
Competitiveness and Unleashing Key Econ omic Drivers to Transition to Growth   
3.2  CARICOM Secretariat (CS) : Regional Projects - Collaboration   
3.2.  Other collaborative projects currently in train are:  
3.3.  Working with a CARICOM Regional Steering Committee on a CARICOM Road Map for 
implementing and complying  with the new WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA); This Roadmap 
is designed to provide a common vision to make sure that Trade Facilitation Stakeholders 
(including public and private agencies) are all moving in the same direction. The Regional Strategy 
as is being developed and implemented to support national efforts in two ways: (a) A "regional 
approach " to implementation of certain TFA measures and (b) A coordinated "regional activities " G/TBT/GEN/252  
 
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  approach that is meant to support individual CARICOM members in their national implementation 
of the TFA measures.  
3.4.  Contributing ideas to (a) Improving the Rules of Origin (ROO) and Common External Tariffs 
(CET) of CARICOM, (b) Identification of Non -Tariff Barriers to Intra -Regional Trade in Agricultural 
Products and (c ) The development of an Effective Platform for Structured and Continuous 
CARICOM - CARIFORUM / FCOR / OCT dialogue at the political and technical levels.  
 
 
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