The Week's Frontpage
| Namibia still far from market protection |
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| Written by Max Hamata | |
| Thursday, 08 July 2010 | |
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Recent revelations by the Namibian Standards Institution that the country still relies heavily on the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) to control the quality and standard of consumable goods entering the country leaves a lot to desired on the protection of Namibian industries.
Only this month NSI signed a memorandum of understanding with their South African counterparts to promote corporation and the CEO Riundja Ali Kaakunga defended the country’s import standards where counterfeit Chinese products find their way on to the shelves, as affordable. Considering that the country celebrated 20 years of independence and a maturing democracy, the heavy reliance on SABS is in no uncertain terms a big concern for President Hifikepunye Pohamba and his team as this exposes the lack of commitment from lawmakers in safeguarding the Namibian market and promoting local industry. While Namibia like any other African country continues to be a dumping ground for counterfeit products from Asia, NSI is still to come up with a reasonable framework of promoting quality services and products. It was not so long ago when the Namibian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) launched a scathing attack on the quality of Chinese counterfeit products and services, but considering the technical hamstrung position of NSI, these calls will only fall on deaf ears and chances of quality improvement will remain next to null. In contrast Namibian meat products have been blocked from the Chinese market for unclear reasons while the Namibian Government and market becomes a paradise of Chinese worthless products much to the detriment of local producers. If Vision 2030 is by any chance a realistic dream, Namibia should start charging heavy tariffs for imports for imported products to protect local consumers from counterfeit products and industry from unfair competition posed by these counterfeit products. While NSI does not see the dangers associated with counterfeit products which lead to market saturation, other countries like South Africa have a very strict monitoring process of imports and the European Union charges tariffs for countries exporting to the bloc outside the Economic Partnership Agreement. Namibia should pluck a leaf from this in its quest to promote local industry. The belief that the safety of products is more important than quality, is a mere ploy to shy away from the reality on the ground where dangerous Chinese milk and counterfeit washing powder surfaced on the market last year. If initiatives like team Namibia and Namibian Competition Commission are to see light at the end of the tunnel then lines of competition for locally produced products should be laid down and financial resources channelled to the two year old NSI to implement their mandate with proficiency. Chinese are among the world’s best manufacturers of products exporting to countries as far afield as the United States of America, Britain and Europe as a whole but the fact that NSI relies on other bodies for quality checks creates a loophole for the Chinese to dump counterfeit products in Namibia. |
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