Describes the country's standards landscape, identifies the national standards and accreditation bodies, and lists the main national testing organization(s) and conformity assessment bodies.

 

Overview

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) has a National Standards Laboratory (NSL) for testing, measuring, and calibrating products to ensure their originality and safety.  The lab is part of Liberia’s efforts to be World Trade Organization (WTO)-compliant.  Its mandates include establishing a reliable standard framework to facilitate trade and to enforce the criteria of the International Organization for Standardization (IOS).  The NSL also helps to improve Liberia’s sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) system—regulating food safety, animal and plant health—to ensure quality control for food and basic commodities.  It is also part of a regional program working to strengthen quality assurance systems to support competitiveness and harmonization of technical barriers to trade (TBT) and SPS measures in West Africa.  The facility also nominally helps the government monitor and prevent counterfeit and substandard goods from entering the Liberian market.  As a member of ECOWAS, Liberia is subject to ECOWAS requirements on biosecurity and SPS.  The lab renders testing in the area of microbiological and chemical analyses on food and non-food products, and metrological services such as calibration and verification of length, mass, temperature, and volume.  The NSL provides technical services to food producing industries in Liberia to enhance the production of safe food and also trains inspectors of various regulatory bodies of government.

Standards

The NSL focuses on testing, measurement, and calibration of products to ensure originality and safety. Liberia conforms to ECOWAS regulations on biosecurity and SPS.  The MOCI’s Inspectorate Division also conducts routine technical inspections to ensure conformity assessment and compliance in terms of weight and measures, industrial compliance, food safety, and warehousing and storage.  The NSL has three basic laboratories: chemical, microbiology, and metrology.  The chemical lab tests for quality and safety of food, water, and non-food materials.  The microbiology lab tests to detect spoilage and disease-causing microorganisms in food, water, and non-food materials including drugs; and the metrology lab provides testing and calibration of devices used for weights, volume, dimension, and temperature in line with international standards.  The lab also strives to build technical capacity of collaborating bodies through training in quality management and food safety management systems. 

Testing, inspection and certification

There are no mutual recognition agreements with U.S. organizations on product certification.  Certifications in Liberia are handled by various agencies depending on the products, sectors, and industries involved.  Product certification has not been reported as burden to U.S. exporters.  Customs inspections of all kinds are handled by the 
Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) and Bureau Veritas Liberia or BIVAC.  Accreditations are also handled by a number of agencies depending on the areas of concern.  For instance, health system and products accreditations are handled by the Ministry of Health and the Liberia Medicines & Health Products Regulatory Authority (LMHRA), education system accreditations are managed by the Ministry of Education and the University of Liberia, and accreditations of assorted consumer products are normally handled by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Agriculture products are accredited by the Ministry of Agriculture and forestry and related products are accredited by the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) while petroleum products are accredited by the  Liberia Petroleum Refining Corporation (LPRC).  Accreditations relating to minerals and energy resources are handled by the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and those relating to land are managed by the Liberia Land Authority; financial services providers are accredited by the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL).  Below is the list of some of the main national testing organization(s) and conformity assessment bodies in Liberia:

Publication of technical regulations

BIVAC, a French international inspection company, provides pre-shipment inspection (PSI) services on behalf of the GOL. It has published technical regulations on pre-shipment and destination inspections (DI) covering the threshold value of imported goods, exemptions, the list of prohibited products, and the list of restricted imports.  The threshold value of imported goods subject to PSI and DI is USD$3,500 for ocean freight and USD$1,500 for airport freight and border posts. All vehicles are subject to inspection regardless of price. Find more information on BIVAC’s regulations.

Contact Information

Use the following boilerplate language for Notify U.S.:
“Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are required under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) to notify to the WTO proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures that could affect trade. Notify U.S. is a free, web-based e-mail registration service that captures and makes available for review and comment key information on draft regulations and conformity assessment procedures. Users receive customized e-mail alerts when new notifications are added by selected country(s) and industry sector(s) of interest, and can also request full texts of regulations.  This service and its associated web site are managed and operated by the USA WTO TBT Inquiry Point housed within the National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.” 

 

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