Abstract

Developing countries like Jamaica form majority membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and are required to meet the obligations of membership, albeit with some provisions for capacitation and leniency in implementation timelines for the agreements. The WTO Trade Agreements require members to harmonise conformity assessment (CA) procedures, with the admission that these could create both obstacles and avenues for trade. Intense debate is ongoing in the extant literature on whether CA is an obstacle or aid to trade. For developing countries like Jamaica, empirical evidence that rebuts either argument or provides insights on the effect of an undeveloped national quality infrastructure (NQI) on implementing the WTO trade agreements is scant. This study examines the Jamaican Accreditation-Based Conformity Assessment System (ABCAS) anchored by the NQI to determine its effect on agri-food trade.

A concurrent mixed methodological strategy was employed with a triangulated approach to analysing and interpreting data from semi-structured interviews with global QI experts and survey data from NQI practitioners, conformity assessment bodies and the agri-foods industry. The research established a strong relationship between the twenty-year delayed implementation of the national quality policy and the development of the NQI, which, by extension, stymied the ABCAS. Despite the constraints experienced, CA procedures are considered by the agri-food industry as beneficial to safeguarding health and well-being. Significantly, the absence of an ABCAS supported by a robust NQI is considered more of an impedance to trade. The knowledge deficits throughout the NQI underscored the imbalance that developing countries like Jamaica have in the tactical implementation of global trade agreements. Knowing the rules of play bolsters the prospects of success in liberalised markets, acknowledging that ignorance can exacerbate trade disproportionalities. These findings indicate the importance of NQI governance and the need to invest in developing QI expertise and disseminating related information. The lessons learned should help developing countries avoid missed opportunities, strategically navigate global trade agreements, and succeed in the race to global markets, especially in the agri-food trade.