3.91.  The Ministry responsible for trade continues to coordinate activities relating to the adoption of sanitary and phytosanitary measures in the DRC; it also serves as secretariat and national focal point for regional and international harmonization in the field. An SPS enquiry point has been set up within the Ministry responsible for trade; the Ministry is also responsible for submitting the relevant notifications to the WTO's SPS Committee. Since the previous review in 2010, no measures (either ordinary or of an emergency nature) have been notified

3.92.  There is considerable overlapping in sanitary controls, particularly between the services of the Ministry responsible for trade; the OCC; the Ministry responsible for agriculture, fisheries and livestock; and the Ministry responsible for health. The DCR is aware of this and is seeking solutions to improve the sharing of responsibilities, after receiving assistance from the FAO. Meanwhile, an Interministerial Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Commission has been set up by Ministerial Order No. 013 of 13 August 2011 to ensure a better distribution of roles among these various departments. This Commission, which is chaired by the Secretary‑General for Trade and for which the OCC is acting as secretariat, consists of the Ministries responsible for trade, small and medium‑sized enterprises, the national economy, agriculture, fisheries and livestock, public health, and the environment, nature conservation and tourism; the OCC; the Directorate‑General of Customs and Excise (DGDA); and the Congolese National Police (Border Police)

3.93.  The Ministry responsible for agriculture, fisheries and livestock (MAPE) is the competent authority for animal and plant health.[72] It draws up and implements regulations on animal and plant protection, including the import and export control of plant material and phytosanitary, veterinary and food products. Its tasks include issuing the phytosanitary certificates needed for the export of plants, plant products or foodstuffs of plant or mineral origin, and controlling the distribution of phytosanitary and veterinary products. The Ministry responsible for health is responsible for health monitoring at the border and public health measures. The Ministry responsible for trade is in charge of verifying compliance with the provisions of agreements on technical barriers to trade

3.94.  In the DRC, all phytosanitary products must be approved for import, packaging, sale on the domestic market or use. The import of plants, plant products or foodstuffs of animal origin requires a permit issued by the relevant services in the Ministry responsible for agriculture. They must be accompanied by a sanitary or phytosanitary certificate from the country of origin. Upon the payment of charges that vary according to value and quantity, these products are subjected to sanitary or phytosanitary control, in the same way as products for export.[73]

3.95.  If the animals, plants, animal or plant products or foodstuffs of animal or plant origin turn out to be contaminated, the competent services decide, as the case may be, to place them in quarantine, treat them, reject them or destroy all or part of them. The cost of implementing these measures is borne by the importer or exporter

3.96.  The authorities have indicated that there are no legal provisions on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), but that a draft law is under consideration

3.97.  All goods of animal or plant origin must be inspected at importation and exportation, whatever the country of origin or destination. Sampling and physico‑chemical and bacteriological analyses are performed by the OCC's Plant and Animal Quarantine Service (SQAV), or by the inspection services. According to the OCC, during the period since 2010, SPS analyses were carried out on an average of 45,000 samples annually, of which 424 per year were found to be non‑compliant

3.98.  The DRC is a member of the World Organisation for Animal Health, the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission and several conventions at the African and global levels. It acceded to the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) on 27 April 2015

3.99.  The DRC has concluded two mutual recognition agreements, with Kenya and Zimbabwe, in certain areas of conformity assessment and standardization, but no mutual recognition agreements specifically concerned with SPS measures

3.100.  National provisions apply to packaging whether it is manufactured or used locally or imported. They are intended to guarantee people's personal safety and security and protect the environment. Accordingly, materials used for packaging must not present any risk of leakage of the substances they contain and, if their condition deteriorates over time, the packaging must be clearly labelled to that effect. The legislation also provides that the packaging must be reusable, recyclable and/or biodegradable. According to the authorities, the DRC's current legislation was drawn up in conformity with the technical regulations of ISO and the World Packaging Organisation (WPO). The Packaging Standardization Directorate (DNE) in the Ministry responsible for transport and communications is in charge of monitoring and implementing the regulations on packaging.[74]

3.101.  According to the authorities, labelling requirements are based, in particular, on the international recommendation OIML R 79/Labelling requirements for prepackaged products. Thus, food and other edible products may only be placed on the Congolese market if their labelling provides certain basic information, so‑called "compulsory information", in French and English or one of the four national languages understood by the Congolese consumer. The labelling on any food product must include: a description of the product; a list of all the ingredients (in decreasing order in terms of quantity); the use‑by and the best‑before date; the quantity of the product expressed in terms of volume or weight; the volume of alcohol (where appropriate); the batch number; and the name or corporate name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer or seller.[75]

3.102.  The DRC also applies the recommended international code of practice General Principles of Food Hygiene (CAC/RCP 1‑1969/2003) and, in addition, has adopted several standards that specify requirements for labels and labelling, in particular, the following standards of the Codex Alimentarius: Codex STAN 1‑1985 (Revision 1‑1991), general standard for the labelling of prepackaged foods, Codex STAN 108‑1981 (Revision 1‑1997), standard for prepackaged natural mineral waters suitable for human consumption, and Codex STAN 227‑2001, general standard for bottled/packaged drinking waters (other than natural mineral waters)

3.103.  In addition, there are several other regulations under Ministerial Order No. 1250/CAB/MIN/S/CJ/KIZ/56/2003 of 16 May 2003 regulating cosmetic products and other toiletries; Ministerial Order No. 012/CAB/MINECI/2001 of 31 March 2001 on approval of standards for wheat flour; the Interministerial Order prohibiting non‑biodegradable packaging; and the Ministerial Order regulating the manufacture of alcoholic beverages. Food and other edible products may not be imported if, on the date of arrival at the point of entry into the DRC, less than a quarter of their shelf life remains; for pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, the corresponding threshold is 50% of the shelf life, with a minimum of six months

3.81.  Standardization policy falls within the purview of the Ministry responsible for industry. At operational level, the OCC oversees compliance with standards. The National Standardization Committee includes representatives of several agencies, among them the OCC, and is chaired by the Ministry responsible for industry. The Congolese Control Office (OCC) is the national enquiry point for standardization and certification. The DRC does not have its own accreditation service. The OCC has the task of ensuring compliance with the obligations assumed under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade.[71] However, no notifications concerning standards and technical regulations have been made to the WTO

3.82.  Pending enactment of the law on standardization in the DRC, standardization and metrology policy and management remain in the hands of the Ministry responsible for industry, which draws up an annual programme and makes it available to the National Standardization Committee (CNN). Standards and technical regulations are introduced at the request of suppliers, consumers or the Government through the ministry concerned. Draft standards are prepared by the sectoral technical standardization committees set up by the Minister responsible for industry, at the proposal of the CNN, in cooperation with the stakeholders in their respective areas of competence. However, according to the authorities, the level of commitment of the main players remains low. Standards are adopted by the CNN. Only the Minister responsible for industry is empowered to publish them, by issuing an order, and, where appropriate, may make them mandatory in the DRC

3.83.  According to the authorities, the DRC currently has 271 standards concerning the following: foodstuffs (141), sizes and units of measurement (14), steel (44), timber (13), cement (11), conformity assessment and quality management (1), electrical engineering (15), and plastic packaging (6). Salt and salted fish are the only products with technical regulations drawn up in the DRC; cement is subject to European standards and the remaining standards have been harmonized with the COMESA standards adopted in 2008, 2009 and 2015. All these standards are mandatory in the DRC, in accordance with Ordinance No. 75‑271 of 22 August 1975 creating the National Standardization Committee

3.84.  The Congolese Control Office (OCC) is responsible inter alia for carrying out controls on imports and exports and domestic markets, including those relating to technical regulations and standards in the DRC. The OCC was established by Ordinance‑Law No. 74‑013 of 10 January 1974 and is a national government agency with its own legal status. It was converted from a State‑owned enterprise into a government institution of a scientific and technical nature and its new status, missions, activities and financing were clarified in Decree No. 09/42 of 3 December 2009. According to this Decree, it is the task of the OCC, as a third party, to assess conformity, meaning inspection, certification, testing or analysis, metrology and technical controls with reference to national, regional and/or international standards. The OCC is approved and recognized throughout the DRC for the purpose of issuing certificates of conformity with standards and technical regulations. The Directorate of Standardization of the Ministry responsible for industry also acts as technical secretariat for the National Standardization Committee, composed of representatives of the various parties concerned

3.85.  Although only salt and salted fish are subject to national technical regulations, it is mandatory for goods imported into the DRC to be inspected at the border or prior to shipment from the country of provenance. Control of conformity with standards and technical regulations is compulsory for both domestic and imported products. Control involves the following: inspection on the production site or at the border; laboratory tests (chemical, microbiological, physical and mechanical) on samples taken either at the end of the production chain when domestic production is being inspected or upon unloading or destuffing, in the case of imports

3.86.  Any product covered by a certificate of conformity with the standards or technical regulations in force may still be subject to further conformity inspection when it is imported into the DRC, unless there is either a mutual recognition agreement or an explicit subcontracting or cooperation arrangement between the body which conducted the conformity assessment abroad and the OCC. Even if such an agreement or arrangement exists, the OCC may conduct further controls if it considers, inter alia, that there is a risk that the product may have deteriorated during transport. The OCC has a technical control and metrology department. The scientific and industrial metrology laboratory is in the process of being accredited to ISO 17025, with support from the German Metrology Institute (PTB). However, verification of temperature, pressure and electrical measurements are not yet possible

3.87.  The OCC is an active member of ISO, the IEC and ARSO (ORAN). It is the enquiry point for standards and has a centre for the dissemination of standards and certification. The OCC has signed mutual recognition agreements with two countries: Kenya (Kenya Bureau of Standards (KeBS) for standardization and conformity assessment) and Zimbabwe (Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) for certification). The agreement with Zimbabwe is in the process of being renewed. Inspection prior to shipment from the country of provenance is the responsibility of a subcontractor, the company BIVAC, whose contract expired on 15 November 2015 and has been extended to 14 November 2016

3.88.  The DRC does not have a national accreditation system but participates, through the OCC, in the Standards, Quality Assurance, Accreditation and Metrology (SQUAM) programme launched by the SADC in 2000. This programme has provided the subregion with a technical framework for quality management involving accreditation, certification, standardization and metrology, with a view to extending it to the legal and regulatory level

3.89.  At importation, the OCC makes various charges, which may amount to 2% of the c.i.f. value, for the various mandatory controls, which cover about 3,500 of the DRC's tariff lines. Details of the entire range of OCC invoicing and levies are provided in Table A3.3. These levies are imposed several times on the same goods by the same or several bodies, are generally ad valorem and can hardly be regarded as payment for services rendered

3.90.  The DRC requires multiple forms of assistance to fill the gaps in the area of standards and technical regulations