Did you know that the products you use every day such as bottled water, household items, and even construction materials are safer and more reliable thanks to regional standards? As Guyana and its Caribbean neighbours prepare to celebrate 52 years of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), we are shedding light on the vital system that supports regional integration and economic development – Standardisation. In Guyana, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) plays a key role in actively adopting and promoting CARICOM Regional Standards to ensure quality, safety, and trade readiness of our products.
At the heart of this effort is the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), which has been working behind the scenes for over two decades to ensure that standards are developed for goods and services produced and provided across the region. CROSQ was established on July 5, 2001, and continues to play a critical role in promoting quality, efficiency, and fairness in regional trade and production.
CROSQ comprises National Standards Bodies (NSBs) from CARICOM Member States, such as GNBS, the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS), and the Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ). These NSBs lead the development and implementation of national standards, many of which evolve to become CARICOM Regional Standards.
But what makes regional standards so important? These standards are crucial for facilitating trade, protecting consumers across the region, promoting sustainability, and ensuring efficient production and service delivery. Regional standards facilitate the oneness of requirements across the region to reduce trade barriers. This is in alignment with the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), an agreement adopted by most CARICOM countries.
The GNBS plays a key role in advancing CARICOM’s goals through the adoption and promotion of these regional standards. To date, GNBS has supported the development and adoption of approximately 73 CARICOM Regional Standards, many focusing on agriculture, food safety, and consumer goods. Many of these standards are actively applied within Guyana’s industries to improve the quality of locally produced goods for trade.
Further, CROSQ aids member states like Guyana to build strong Quality Infrastructures (QI) which include Standardisation, Conformity Assessment (testing, inspection, and certification), Accreditation and Metrology (weights and measures). Through CROSQ, countries gain access to technical support, capacity building, and global best practices, further enabling sustainable development.
Standards may seem invisible, but their impact is felt in the bottles of water we drink, the buildings we enter, and the products we buy and use. As we celebrate CARICOM Day on Monday, July 7, let us take pride in how far we have come and in the systems we have built to support Standards and Quality.
For further information on this subject, contact GNBS on telephone numbers: 219-0064 or 219-0065, WhatsApp us on 692-4627 or visit our website www.gnbsgy.org.
