Overview
Eswatini Standards Authority (SWASA) was formed by the GKoE through the Quality and Standards Act (10) 2003, and is a parastatal under the auspices of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade.
This unit would act as a standards institution, including offering customer protection through quality assurance and helping industries on matters related to standardization and quality control.
The mission of the Authority is to promote quality principles and facilitate the use of standards to reduce technical barriers to trade and investment, ensure a sustainable Swati economy, and safeguard the nation’s health, safety and environment. It is governed by a ten-member council whose function is provide strategic and policy direction to the benefit of the Swati people through an improved standard of living.
Standards
SWASA (www.swasa.co.sz) has been working on the development and adoption of close to 300 standards, 7 of which are in the process of being gazetted in preparation for their publication and availability for use in 2023. Where local standards are not available the Authority helps local companies source standards, from neighboring National Standards Bodies.
It has been established through research that South African National Standards sourced from SABS are most commonly used by local companies. Another commonly used standard is ISO 9000 and some companies are in the process of implementing HACCP. So far only one company is known to be implementing ISO22000 and is accredited to the standard. On the other hand it has been noted that local SMEs have very little knowledge on the use of standards and their perceived benefits.
Contact Information
Eswatini Standards Authority https://www.swasa.co.sz/
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.