Challenges Relating to Complying with Product Standard An Agricultural Product

A standard is a document established by consensus and approved by a recognized body that provides for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines, or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievements of the optimum degree of order in a given context. It is divided in to two i.e., public and private standard. Public standards are the quality requirements set by the government in order to protect the people, animals, plants, and the environment from products that will have a harmful effect on their health and well-being where as private standards are standards developed by private bodies ranging from a large retailer to private sector coalitions such as British Retailers Consortium (BRC) to a non‐governmental initiative such as Fair trade. Even if standards are different benefits to the international community countries face different challenges to comply with product standard in agricultural products. Countries impose food safety standards for good reason, namely to protect the health of domestic consumers. However, domestic food safety standards often deviate from international ones. From an exporter’s point of view, such standards are likely to be seen as barriers to entry. Producers must modify production processes in order to meet each individual market’s product regulations, which raise the cost of the product for consumers. Additionally multiplicity of standards including compliance to private standards is an ever‐growing challenge to exporters with limited technical capacities. Frequent changes in product specifications in grading, size, labeling and corresponding conformity assessment procedures for agricultural products call for greater technical and physical capacity to address these changes and thus require more time and cost to export both at national and firm level. Moreover outdated laws, lack of knowledge in sharing limited coordination between organizations handling food safety issues and the lack of awareness for standards and quality may affect developing countries to effectively participate in international trade. To avoid the above challenges the WTO should make a serious follow up of the member states domestic standards in order not to be stricter and contradictory to the international product standard. Additionally the WTO should impose an obligation on the member states to prohibit the establishment private standards which is stricter than the public standards which is made by the government of member countries. Moreover developing countries should give due consideration in creating skilled manpower and professionals who is competent and capable to take the above responsibility