Accreditation: Eliminating Invisible Barriers to Trade

Minister of State in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Honourable Dianne Seukeran, has issued a major challenge to all local laboratories to become fully accredited to international standards to ensure this country maintains its international competitiveness. The minister was speaking at a seminar on accreditation in the  region, recently hosted by the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS) and the Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC), in which the TTBS launched its Laboratory Accreditation Service – TTLABS. Well, it seems that local labs have taken to heart the minister’s challenge.  Since the launch of TTLABS, the Bureau of Standards has been flooded with requests from laboratories across the country for more information about the accreditation service itself, and exactly what criteria they need to meet, in order to be accredited.

At present, there are almost 160 laboratories in the country.  Only three of these are accredited and they’re all in the state sector —TTBS, CARIRI and PETROTRIN. TTBS Manager for Laboratory Accreditation, Giselle Guevara, says TTLABS will be offering accreditation services to laboratories in Trinidad and Tobago that perform testing in the following fields: chemistry, microbiology, civil engineering, non-destructive tests, calibration and measurement, electrical and eechanical tests, and medical testing. “Training of qualified laboratory assessors will be a critical element in all this,” she notes, “and we’ll be working closely with the IAAC to ensure that our experts here in T and T get the training they need.” A training programme on measurement uncertainty and proficienncy testing was held in early November for laboratories in Trinidad interested in preparing themselves for accreditation in the future. 

Twenty-four participants benefited from the training, which was facilitated by two experts from Canada’s national research council. And at the regional level, the CAREC–European Union Funded Project for the strengthening of medical laboratories met in November to consider the way forward for laboratory accreditation in the Caribbean. The whole issue of accreditation has been gaining visibility and momentum within recent years, especially for developing countries, as more of them seek to take their place in the global trading system, and encounter what are called ‘‘invisible’’ or ‘‘technical’’ barriers to trade.  Such technical barriers to trade include: product specifications; packaging and labelling requirements; consumer standards; health and safety standards; security measures; and environmental requirements. These barriers are primarily related to quality and standards issues, and as a result, the work of agencies such as TTBS has become even more critical.

According to Minister Seukeran, developing countries like ours must meet and exceed international standards, if we are to remain serious players in the trade game. “In order to survive in today’s competitive market place, businesses need to meet customer requirements consistently.  Not only that,” she asserts, “they even need to anticipate them.  The only way to do this is by giving customers the products and services they want… and you must get it right the first time.  The bottom line,” she stresses, “is that quality is everybody’s business.  That is why my ministry has always supported efforts by TTBS to develop a national accreditation body for this country.  In fact, it is a key development priority for Government.”
The legal instrument supporting TTBS was amended in 1997, to include the development of the national accreditation body as its major mandate.  In addition, earlier this year, the Metrology Act was passed — an important instrument for supporting accreditation.

“There is no doubt in my mind that the lack of proper national accreditation programmes in many developing countries has hampered their full integration into the established world trading system,” Minister Seukeran notes, “and their overall economic development has been stunted, as result.” In today’s world of international trade, regulators and customers must be able to rely on tests conducted in other countries, especially in terms of the competence of the testing laboratories supplying the data.  Even more importantly, they need to have independent assurance that the test results are valid.  The reality is that product testing may be subject to legal challenge, as evidenced by the dramatic increase in product liability litigation over the past few years.  This is why laboratories in Trinidad and Tobago must be properly accredited by recognised international bodies, thus assuring their competence, and ensuring that products made in TT can easily be traded in other countries.

Minister Seukeran believes that in addition to being accredited, local labs also need to ensure that they can communicate with their counterparts in other countries.  Pointing to Government’s initiative to make Spanish the second language of Trinidad and Tobago, the trade minister observes that as our economy becomes more integrated with that of the wider Latin American region and the hemisphere, there will be more collaboration and interaction with our Spanish-speaking trade partners, and the labs are no exception. “You must be able to communicate effectively with your laboratory testing colleagues in these other countries, especially since we will be increasing our trade with them,” she says.  “In fact, one of the greatest barriers to trade is the ability to communicate effectively in other languages, and it is a barrier that our businesses and labs across the country must overcome.”

Trinidad and Tobago is working closely with its Caricom partners — especially in the area of accreditation and standards — as the region prepares for full implementation of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME).  At present, CROS-Q in Barbados — the Caribbean Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality — is working towards harmonising standards and technical regulations within the Caricom region, a fundamental building block in the CSME construct. As more and more countries embrace the ‘‘free trade paradigm,’’ having their conformity assessment bodies properly accredited is becoming more critical.  In this era of free trade, governments have to phase out quotas and subsides within agreed timetables, and tariffs are being systematically reduced.  With the removal of those types of barriers, the only remaining tools which governments can use to regulate access to their markets are technical barriers to trade. 

That is why accreditation is such an important issue, as the key to breaking down these last bastions of protectionist policies. Accreditation will be granted for three years, and TTBS/TTLABS will be conducting surveillance visits at these labs for every year they are accredited.  In addition, all local labs will need to participate in proficiency testing at least once a year. Over the next year, local labs will receive training in ISO 17025 and ISO 15189, which are the standards used for accreditation.  The bureau will also run several seminars on accreditation and related topics, and provide training for general and technical lab assessors. It will also serve as a repository for information on quality control and maintaining accreditation ratings.