NTMS 101: A brief overview of the nature and effect of NTMS
Courtesy of The Star Njogu is an aspiring Kenyan farmer. He plans to specialize in tea farming, which he begins to cultivate on a recently leased medium-sized farm in Limuru. After the tea is harvested, it is dried and packaged in a factory for export to the United Kingdom. Njogu is confident that he has met all customs tariffs and other tax regulations as advised and anticipates huge profits. He does, however, learn that his goods have been rejected as being unfit for export. They appear to fall short of packaging and conformity assessment requirements prescribed by the UK and Kenyan governments. Njogu is perplexed because he is unaware of the said conformity assessment requirements. He is not alone in this predicament. Surprisingly, despite the fact that NTMs affect 90% of global trade, little or no information about them is readily available to the average mwananchi. This lack of transparency has serious consequences for businesses, particularly medium and small busi...