The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA) estimates the annual cost of implementing the Conformity Assessment Program (PAC) in the private sector at more than 400 million US dollars.

The impact of the measure is seen as negative, since according to businesspeople the PAC will cause, among other things, an increase in the cost of imports of around 23% per container, which means a loss of competitiveness for Mozambican businesspeople on the international scene and a negative impact on the national economy.

The information was given on Thursday in Maputo by the executive director of the CTA, Eduardo Sengo, during a workshop for the public presentation of the private sector's position on the PAC.

"Considering all those costs that we have raised, we estimate that around 400 million dollars is the approximate cost that the private sector will have to bear because of the PAC," said Sengo, quoted by AIM.

He said that the cost could be higher, since only the alcoholic beverages, fisheries and food sectors were taken into account for the release of this data.

"It has other costs, but we need to use 400 million dollars to pay for the private sector PAC, with the lost waiting time," he said.

"With all this, the cost of importing per container is going to rise by around 23 percent, which means a loss of competitiveness for our economy. It's yet another negative impact of the PAC," he said.

In fact, said Sengo, there are companies that are trying to import their goods, but they are facing many difficulties.

"The general rule is that the time to import is increasing and will [continue to] increase. There is no doubt that if the process continues, we consider the CAP to be a technical barrier to international trade," he stressed.

The CAP is a program that consists of conformity assessment based on the requirements set out in technical standards, regulations or technical specifications and is applied to products that are subject to compulsory control in the respective exporting countries, in order to guarantee their conformity.

It was introduced on November 11 by the National Institute for Standardization and Quality (INNOQ), with the aim of curbing the entry and circulation of substandard and counterfeit products in the country.