A member of the Standards Partnership Team, implementing trade and quality infrastructure projects with the CARICOM Regional Organization for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), is currently on island conducting a series of meetings with officials and stakeholders to inform the development of a draft National Quality Policy for the island.
Consultant, Mr. Trevor Vyze commenced an in-country-visit to Montserrat on Monday January 15th in this regard. His visit will conclude on Friday January 19th. The Trade and Quality Infrastructure Division, under the portfolio of the Office of the Premier, explained that during this week Mr. Vyze will work on the situational analysis and the National Standardisation Strategy for Montserrat, which will pave the way for the draft National Quality Policy to be delivered by March 2024. More specifically, in the fact-finding meetings with Officials and Stakeholders, Mr. Vyze will examine the technical aspects of Montserrat’s Quality Infrastructure (QI) landscape, including:
- Market Surveillance;
- Standardization;
- Certification and Testing;
- Accreditation, and;
- Metrology.
The development of this policy is critical, as Montserrat is one of the few CARICOM Member States not currently aligned to the CARICOM Regional Quality Policy launched in 2017. The Trade and Quality Infrastructure Division stated that this has resulted in a weak quality infrastructure regulatory and/or policy environment exemplified by a lack of coordination and overlapping mandates.
A National Quality Policy (NQP) will therefore link the policy and implementation measures relating to standards, metrology, conformity assessment and technical regulation contained in all relevant policies where they exist. The development of an NQP will also provide an opportunity for The Trade and Quality Infrastructure Division to review quality issues mentioned in other policies and related strategies and amend sections of these policies and strategies that may not be in compliance with international guidelines and rules, or that may lack coherence to a structured National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) development programme.
The development and implementation of a National Quality Policy will serve to ensure the systematic inclusion of standards and quality and attendant regulations that are informed by the imperatives of consumer health and safety, climate resilience and environmental sustainability as well as industrial productivity, innovation and competitiveness.
Montserrat is able to benefit from this, as The British Standards Institute (BSI) has allocated a tranche of funds from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) to work with CARICOM’s Member States to implement some Trade – Quality Infrastructure projects with the CARICOM Regional Organization for Standards and Quality (CROSQ). The development of our National Quality Policy (NQP) was identified as a sub-project for Montserrat; as the last Member State to implement the CARICOM Regional Quality Policy (RQP).
Mr. Trevor Vyze is a member of the Standards Partnership Team supporting the planned work in the Caribbean and Montserrat. Mr. Vyze was Head of Technical Policy and International Policy Manager at BSI and Director of Standards Development, Technical Group Manager and Technical Programme Manager at International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). He also worked with the BSI International Project team on several projects supporting governments and standards bodies worldwide.