The Bahamas has enacted basic laws for standards, and the Bureau of Standards and Quality (BBSQ) governs standards for goods and services, particularly metrology (weights and balances). The BBSQ cooperates with other ministries on quality standards, such as sanitary and phytosanitary standards with the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources and the Bahamas Health and Food Safety Agency (BAHFSA). This has not been a hindrance to trade with the United States and U.S. products are widely accepted.
Standards:
The BBSQ administers the Processed Foods, Weights, and Measures Acts, which affect all products entering The Bahamas. Importers and distributors must ensure that goods sold in The Bahamas are properly labeled in English and comply with local labeling standards.
Testing, inspection, and certification:
There are limited labs in the country and currently no national testing organization. These services are often contracted to U.S. agencies, and to a lesser extent from Caribbean and South American agencies.
Meat products:
The meat certification program requires that all meat animals (e.g., cows, pigs, sheep, and goats) are slaughtered at the government abattoir and are subject to compliance inspections and basic standards.
Fisheries:
Bahamian fisheries exporters are required to be certified in Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), and most fisheries exports are processed according to international standards, including new requirements for traceability.
Accreditation/International standards:
Generally, if a product satisfies the Caribbean Regional Organization for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) or has U.S. accreditation, it is accepted in The Bahamas as the BBSQ has limited capacity to test or accredit findings. The government proposes that any future system to ensure competence of certification programs will be conducted in accordance with regional and/or international standards.
Publication of technical regulations
National Gazette: Government information, including laws and official announcements, are published in the Official Gazette of The Bahamas.
Secretary to the Cabinet
Cabinet Office
P.O. Box N-7147
Nassau, The Bahamas
Tel. (242) 322-2805-8 or 322-410 or 356-2710
Contact Information:
Bahamas Bureau of Standards and Quality (BBSQ)
P.O. Box N- 4843
The Source River Centre
1000 Bacardi Road N.P.
The Bahamas
Tel: +1 (242) 362-1748 - 55
Email: info@bbsq.com or tbtenquirypoint@bbsq.com
Use ePing to review proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.
The ePing SPS&TBT platform (https://epingalert.org/), or “ePing”, provides access to notifications made by World Trade Organization (WTO) Members under the Agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), distributed by the WTO from January 16, 1995 to present. ePing is available to all stakeholders free of charge and does not require registration unless the user wishes to receive customized e-mail alerts. Use it to browse notifications on past as well as new draft and updated product regulations, food safety and animal and plant health standards and regulations, find information on trade concerns discussed in the WTO SPS and TBT Committees, locate information on SPS/TBT Enquiry Points and notification authorities, and to follow and review current and past notifications concerning regulatory actions on products, packaging, labeling, food safety and animal and plant health measures in markets of interest.
Notify U.S., operated and maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since 2003 to distribute and provide access to notifications (and associated draft texts) made under the WTO TBT Agreement for US stakeholders, has reached its end of life. Per obligation under the TBT Agreement, each WTO Member operates a national TBT (and an SPS) Enquiry Point. National TBT Enquiry Points are authorized to accept comments and official communications from other national TBT Enquiry Points, which are NOT part of the WTO or the WTO Secretariat. All comment submissions from U.S. stakeholders, including businesses, trade associations, U.S domiciled standards development organizations and conformity assessment bodies, consumers, or U.S. government agencies on notifications to the WTO TBT Committee should be sent directly to the USA WTO TBT Inquiry Point. Refer to the comment guidance at https://tsapps.nist.gov/notifyus/data/guidance/guidance.cfm for further information. This guidance is provided to assist U.S. stakeholders in the preparation and submission of comments in response to notifications of proposed foreign technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.
For EU CCG: Include reference to article with a video on CE Mark: https://www.trade.gov/ce-marking