Technical regulatory reform in Africa : a condition for a competitive regional economy

Abstract

Technical regulations are critical for competitive regional and national economies. This stems from the fact that an undirected and uncontrollable world trade regime can be chaotic and irresponsible thereby undermining the quality and safety of products and consequently endanger the lives of the consumer. Various regions have both embarked on technical regulatory reforms to eliminate these problems and to realign their technical regulations with the requirements of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) specifications. These reforms are also expected to assist member countries to have a competitive edge on trade relations and ensure the accrual of gains from trade liberation initiatives. African countries seem to be lagging behind, both as individual states or regional groupings such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The current technical regulatory systems in Africa are still fragmented, inefficient and ineffective to position African countries for world trade competitiveness. It is with this in mind that this article is written explore the technical regulatory framework in African countries against the background of reforms in Asia and Europe with a view to provide recommendations for an effective and efficient technical regulatory regime that would expedite investment and economic recovery for the continent.