Johannesburg: Trade, Industry and Competition Deputy Minister Alexandra Abrahams has officially opened the 41st annual meeting of the SADC Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Structures. The three-day meeting is taking place at the Protea Hotel in Johannesburg. According to South African Government News Agency, in line with this year's Southern African Development Community (SADC) theme, 'Advancing Industrialisation, Agricultural Transformation, and Energy Transition for a Resilient SADC', Abrahams highlighted that quality infrastructure is a critical component to facilitating rural development and industrialisation and in turn, economic growth in the southern region of the African continent. The Technical Barriers to Regional Trade Annex to the SADC Protocol on Trade provides a framework for the identification and elimination of trade barriers arising from the application of diverging standards, technical regulations, or conformity assessment procedures. Abrahams noted that SADC's growing engagement in inter national quality infrastructure forums is encouraging, but there must be continued building of scientific, technical, and diplomatic capability to ensure global standards reflect Africa's realities and support equitable participation. She emphasized that this must be underpinned by deliberate investment in scientific excellence, technical depth, and coordinated diplomatic capability if the region is to shape outcomes rather than respond to them. 'To achieve this, we must strengthen our national standards bodies, accreditation systems, and metrology institutes so that they can generate credible data, influence technical committees, and anchor Africa's positions in evidence,' she stated. Abrahams also stressed the importance of building a cadre of skilled experts and negotiators, who can engage consistently in global standard-setting platforms and ensure that emerging norms are informed by the production realities, development pathways, and regulatory capacities of the region. Abrahams pointed out that agricu ltural transformation requires a change in how quality infrastructure across the value chain is approached. She indicated that from primary production through to agro-processing and export, farmers and agri-enterprises must increasingly comply with stringent sanitary standards, traceability requirements, and sustainability benchmarks. Strengthening testing, certification, and inspection capacity within the agricultural sector is essential to improve food security and productivity, and to unlock access to higher-value regional and international markets. As SADC continues to advance the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, the consolidation of standards, mutual recognition of conformity assessments, and the strengthening of institutional capability will be decisive. The Deputy Minister concluded by emphasizing that a coordinated, well-resourced, and forward-looking approach to quality infrastructure will be essential if the region is to move towards an integrated, competitive, and resilie nt economic bloc that delivers sustained growth, expanded market access, and tangible opportunities for its people.
