Fiji Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in fiji, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
Standards for Trade
Last published date:

Overview

In 1992, the Department of National Trade Measurement and Standards (DNTMS) was established by the Trade Standards and Quality Control Decree 1992 to ensure that Fiji’s products and services standards are aligned to international standards.  The DNTMS forms technical committees of representatives from government, businesses, industry, academia, and consumers.  The committee through a process of consensus develops standards for Fiji, and makes recommendation to the Minister for Trade, Cooperatives, and SMEs, on Fiji standards specifications, including processes, practices, quality, composition, labeling, and codes of practices.  The Department maintains the national system of units and standards of measurement on physical quantities to provide for the fair and just use of units of measurement, standards, measuring instruments and pre-packed articles.

Standards

There are 11 mandatory standards (technical regulations) and 75 voluntary standards in place, covering areas such as building and building material, telecommunication cabling, occupational health and safety, and electrical installation.  However, the DNTMS has a Memorandum of Understanding with Standards Australia International and most of the standards were adopted from Standards Australia as best practice standards.  The Department of National Trade Measurement and Standards is a full member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Pacific Area Standards Congress and is affiliated with the International Electrochemical Commission (IEC), International Organization for Legal Metrology (OIML), National Measurement Institute (NMI), and Asia Pacific Metrology Programme (APMP).

Publication of Technical Regulations

All technical regulations are published in the Fiji Islands Gazette and available on the Ministry of Trade, Co-operatives and SMEs website.  Proposed technical regulations are circulated widely to relevant stakeholders for review.  The standard development process takes a minimum of 12 months to publish the standard, with national standards reviewed after every 5 years.

Contact Information

Department of National Trade Measurement and Standards

Ministry of Trade, Co-operatives, Small and Medium Enterprises

P.O. Box 2118, Government Buildings, Suva

Phone: (679) 3305-411| Fax: (679) 3310-810

AnchorUse ePing to review proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures. 

The ePing SPS&TBT platform (https://epingalert.org/), or “ePing”, provides access to notifications made by World Trade Organization (WTO) Members under the Agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), distributed by the WTO from January 16, 1995 to present.  ePing is available to all stakeholders free of charge and does not require registration unless the user wishes to receive customized e-mail alerts.  Use it to browse notifications on past as well as new draft and updated product regulations, food safety and animal and plant health standards and regulations, find information on trade concerns discussed in the WTO SPS and TBT Committees, locate information on SPS/TBT Enquiry Points and notification authorities, and to follow and review current and past notifications concerning regulatory actions on products, packaging, labeling, food safety and animal and plant health measures in markets of interest. 

Notify U.S., operated and maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since 2003 to distribute and provide access to notifications (and associated draft texts) made under the WTO TBT Agreement for US stakeholders, has reached its end of life. Per obligation under the TBT Agreement, each WTO Member operates a national TBT (and an SPS) Enquiry Point.  National TBT Enquiry Points are authorized to accept comments and official communications from other national TBT Enquiry Points, which are NOT part of the WTO or the WTO Secretariat.  All comment submissions from U.S. stakeholders, including businesses, trade associations, U.S domiciled standards development organizations and conformity assessment bodies, consumers, or U.S. government agencies on notifications to the WTO TBT Committee should be sent directly to the USA WTO TBT Inquiry Point.  Refer to the comment guidance at https://tsapps.nist.gov/notifyus/data/guidance/guidance.cfm for further information. This guidance is provided to assist U.S. stakeholders in the preparation and submission of comments in response to notifications of proposed foreign technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.

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Global Business Navigator Chatbot Beta

Welcome to the Global Business Navigator, an artificial intelligence (AI) Chatbot from the International Trade Administration (ITA). This tool, currently in beta version testing, is designed to provide general information on the exporting process and the resources available to assist new and experienced U.S. exporters. The Chatbot, developed using Microsoft’s Azure AI services, is trained on ITA’s export-related content and aims to quickly get users the information they need. The Chatbot is intended to make the benefits of exporting more accessible by understanding non-expert language, idiomatic expressions, and foreign languages.

Limitations

As a beta product, the Chatbot is currently being tested and its responses may occasionally produce inaccurate or incomplete information. The Chatbot is trained to decline out of scope or inappropriate requests. The Chatbot’s knowledge is limited to the public information on the Export Solutions web pages of Trade.gov, which covers a wide range of topics on exporting. While it cannot provide responses specific to a company’s product or a specific foreign market, its reference pages will guide you to other relevant government resources and market research. Always double-check the Chatbot’s responses using the provided references or by visiting the Export Solutions web pages on Trade.gov. Do not use its responses as legal or professional advice. Inaccurate advice from the Chatbot would not be a defense to violating any export rules or regulations.

Privacy

The Chatbot does not collect information about users and does not use the contents of users’ chat history to learn new information. All feedback is anonymous. Please do not enter personally identifiable information (PII), sensitive, or proprietary information into the Chatbot. Your conversations will not be connected to other interactions or accounts with ITA. Conversations with the Chatbot may be reviewed to help ITA improve the tool and address harmful, illegal, or otherwise inappropriate questions.

Translation

The Chatbot supports a wide range of languages. Because the Chatbot is trained in English and responses are translated, you should verify the translation. For example, the Chatbot may have difficulty with acronyms, abbreviations, and nuances in a language other than English.

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