Overview
Mauritania takes a top-down, government-driven approach. Government ministers exercise considerable authority over all contracts and production decisions, which can sometimes slow decision-making. The Prime Minister, and ultimately the President, are also involved in decisions involving high priority sectors.
Standards
The Mauritanian regulatory environment is characterized by poor norms and regulations. The recently created Department for Standardization and Quality Promotion (DNPQ) is a Directorate of the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines whose mission concerns standardization, certification, accreditation, and metrology. The DNPQ is a correspondent member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Classification of national standards are derived from international ones, and Mauritania accepts standards developed by U.S.-domiciled standards developing organizations.
Testing, Inspection and Clarification
In general, U.S. products meeting U.S. standards can enter the Mauritanian market. Imported products are rarely tested, and, except under specific situations (such as pork products, alcohol, or chemicals destined for the mining sector), products can enter the country without testing or inspection.
Publication of Technical Regulations
Please see “Customs Regulations” under the “Customs, Regulations & Standards” section.
Contact Information
Guichet Unique
Le Guichet Unique (the “One Stop Shop”)
Mauritania Investment Promotion Agency
Agency for the Promotion of Investment in Mauritania (http://apimagency.info/).
Mauritanian Chamber of Commerce
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 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.