The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) is calling on importers and local manufacturers to conform to its registration requirement for the selling of certain items monitored by the agency.
According to GNBS, importers and local manufacturers are required to register with the agency on a yearly basis to be in complete compliance with the stipulated standards.
The 20 commodities that require monitoring by GNBS are domestic electric appliances, weighing and measuring devices, textiles, garments, footwear, safety matches, tyres, gas stoves, fertilisers, cigarettes, PVC pipes, furniture, toys, soap powder, Christmas trees and decorative lighting outfits, safety helmets, cellular phones, water and electricity meters and seat belts.
The registration of both imported and locally manufactured products will facilitate inspection of the products’ labels. This will verify that the product is in conformity with national standards.
Head of the Conformity Department Candelle Walcott-Bostwick
Head of the Conformity Department and Officer in Charge of the GNBS, Candelle Walcott-Bostwick, in a statement said, “For the categories of products monitored by the GNBS for the importers, once they’re going to bring in any of those items that are on our list of products they are expected to register with the bureau annually. For the locally manufactured products they also have to register with the bureau.”
If an importer brings in any of these items without being registered by the agency, the items are placed on a ‘hold’ system which allows the importer or the dealer to be registered.
Application forms for registration are available on the bureau’s website and can be submitted to the office located at the National Exhibition Centre, Sophia.
In explaining the process, Walcott-Bostwick said, “They would complete the form and after that is completed they are normally issued a certificate that should be displayed at the location, that they are a registered importer of a particular product”.
The registration fee for the importation of these items is usually $ 30,000 but the dealers (importers of cellular phones, tyres etc.) are required to pay a registration fee of $15,000.
The agency further highlighted that it intends to create public awareness to familiarise the business community with the necessary information for easier flow of conducting business, and to encourage compliance with the agency’s standards.
