Staff Reporter

Zimbabwe is hosting the 40th annual SADC Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Cooperation Structures meeting in Victoria Falls, a platform where the community’s member States are deliberating on setting up fundamentals that ensure conformity, fairness and competitiveness in commerce and industry.

Running under the theme ‘Promoting regional harmonisation of standards for industrialisation and economic growth’, the meeting kicked off on a high note as SADC member States discussed metrology: a basic science of measurement aiming to ensure the accuracy of various tools that determine size, quantity and dimensions.

All the 16 member States of SADC send in representatives for the meetings, with Botswana and Seychelles attending via Zoom.

Metrology formulates the basis of standards and conformity for inter-States trade globally, hence it is the obligation of SADC member States to ensure they regulate and assess the accuracy of various instruments of measure in their respective countries.

Meanwhile, the meeting comes at a time when the continent is waking up to the urgent need for self-reliance as United States (US) President Donald Trump embarks on a crusade to cut off aid to Africa and other developing regions.

In a rapid march towards consolidating intra-Africa trade, the delegates resolved by consensus to host the regional workshop on Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) to enable them to account and take stock of the effectiveness and areas of improvement for effective capacity utilisation.

The TBT meeting reflects the continent’s political will to implement Africa Continental Free Trade Areas (AfCFTA), an initiative that was adopted to promote trade and commerce among African nations.

Zimbabwe, under the stewardship of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is also the current SADC Chairman, continues to set the pace and standard as the TBT’s 2025 theme resonates with the Second Republic’s mantra to industrialise and modernise Zimbabwe.