In general, U.S. standards set the pace for Guatemalan standards.  Many products made in the U.S. already meet Guatemala’s standards. The main area of difference is found in items intended for human consumption, such as pharmaceuticals and food. In Guatemala, registration and labeling requirements for these cases require U.S. exporters to follow strict local guidelines.

The United States actively serves as a resource to assist Guatemala in developing or streamlining standards. The objectives of Chapter 7 (Technical Barriers to Trade) in the CAFTA-DR agreement are to: increase and facilitate trade through improvement to the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) agreement and eliminate unnecessary barriers and enhance bilateral cooperation.  Read more on Technical Barriers to Trade under CAFTA-DR.

Food Products

Products labeled as “diet supplements”, “homeopathic”, “and prophylactic” or “phyto-therapeutic” must be registered as medicines. All products that apply for registration must be tested by the Health National Laboratory (LNS), which is the Ministry of Health’s only laboratory. Product samples must be provided at time of registration.

RTCA 67.01.15:07 rules fortified wheat flour, providing specifications and approved additives for wheat flour.

Testing, Inspection and Certification

Guatemala requires that processed animal origin food be tested at the Ministry of Health’s official laboratory prior to marketing. This test may take 1-3 months after which a registration will be issued.  The registration allows for commercialization of the product and needs to be renewed every five years.  Processed food is randomly inspected at the point of sale, but Guatemala does not carry out inspection or certification at origin.  For fresh produce or non-processed meat, OIRSA inspects at port if fresh or refrigerated, mostly for quarantine pests or ISMF-15 stamp. No food safety inspection is carried at the port of entry.

Publication of Technical Regulations

Use 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 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.

Contact Information

Interested parties may contact Agricutural Specialist Karla Tay at KayTM@state.gov or Commercial Specialist Antonio Prieto at antonio.prieto@trade.gov.