ISLAMABAD, Sept 1: Pakistan will have to ensure standardisation, certification, testing, inspection and accreditation of its products to survive in the WTO and live up to the expectations of consumers.

This was the unanimous demand of a workshop on “Standardisation and Certification” organised by the Trade Related Technical Assistance (TRTA) programme of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) here on Thursday.

The two-day workshop is co-sponsored by Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) and the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI).

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Nouraiz Shakoor Khan, who inaugurated the workshop, said Pakistan was making efforts to introduce standardisation in every sector and ensure its implementation, as it was a basic part of the infrastructure necessary for sound economic development.

He said Pakistan was well-aware that a well-conceived standardisation programme laid the foundations for compatibility of industrial practices, optimum use of scarce resources, promotion of quality, assimilation of technology, scientific knowledge and experience.

A number of participants asked the PSQCA director-general, Abdul Ghaffar Soomro, who also delivered a presentation, as to why the products of majority of the companies in Pakistan were still substandard despite the fact that they carried the logo of ISO certification.

The participants expressed their dissatisfaction at the way the consumers were treated in Pakistan. They said the companies were selling to the people whatever they manufactured and the government seldom took any action against them even after receiving complaints from the consumers. They said though majority of the water-selling companies were marketing substandard water and still labelled the ISO certification on their products no action was taken against them.

Pedro P. Vilaseca, an international consultant on standardisation, said standardisation, certification, testing, inspection and accreditation were just the instruments of quality and its management. However, these disciplines were hard to be introduced and implemented in the Third World countries where price and not quality was the main priority of majority of the consumers.

He said the standards of a company should reflect the needs of the customers and its own capacity for finances, equipment, manpower, process of technology and transportation etc. The final goal of the sectoral standards was to reduce variety, get better economies of scale, reduce cost both for the supplier and the manufacturer and facilitate the availability of spare parts.

The national standardisation, Mr Vilaseca said, embraced the needs of all sectors, facilitated commercialisation of the products nationwide and did not restrain the choice of technologies and processes. “So, national standards put the accent on the performance of the product during its life span in the hands of the final consumer,” Mr Vilaseca.

He said regional standards developed to facilitate regional trade and its advantages varied from one region to another. About the international standards, he said, international trade increased after the 2nd World War, which was followed by the General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT) followed by the WTO and its agreements.

He said WTO emphasised the use of international standards for products and services in order to eliminate technical barriers to trade, as well as facilitate through harmonised standards international trade.

Mr Velaseca said the agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and the agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) from the World Trade Organisation had defined the subjects that could be covered by ‘technical regulations’.