Technical Assistance for Implementation of an Upgraded Quality System

The implementation of the EU-Jordan Association Agreement entailed the adoption of several measures to enhance trade facilitation and legislative approximation between Jordan and the EU. Furthermore, the EU/Jordan ENP action plan defined a number of technical, legislative, and procedural actions that are needed, from both sides, to facilitate the movement of goods between the two partners. The actions were mostly deliberated in Article 29, that deals with trade related issues, market and regulatory reform. The Article highlighted different areas for improvement concerning the Jordanian institutions in charge of implementing product legislation or engaged in overseeing the movement of goods. Its detailed sub clauses and actions underlined the need for strengthening the border-related laboratories and stressed on simplifying the trade related testing procedures. Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), and by institutional support fund from the European Union, established Aqaba International laboratories to be a technical arm in the areas of environment and food at local and regional level. Ben Hayyan Laboratories are accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standard but always need continual improvement, updates and accreditation of new tests like growth hormone residues, antibiotics, trace metals, pathogenic bacteria. In addition, the laboratory needs to implement major types of measurement and calibration techniques in order to expand the work scope and also to keep the staff up to date. The global objective of the assignment was to enhance Jordan reform and modernization programs in regards to the food safety control system and aligning it with the EU and international best practices.


Project Details
Country JORDAN
Start date 2012.01.02
End date 2013.03.31
Client EC Delegation
Sector FRAMEWORK CONTRACTS
Sub-sector Standards & Regulatory aspects
Ref. ADE A423-173