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

Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade

Mauritania’s non-tariff barriers (NTBs) are still a significant source of trade friction, even if hard quantitative “caps” or quotas are rare. Trade facilitation indicators suggest substantial improvement—reflecting better institutional cooperation, more transparent procedures and increasing digitization—but in practice importers continue to face unpredictable inspection regimes, requirements for government-issued import authorizations or certificates, sanitary or phytosanitary reviews, and ad hoc documentation requests that delay shipment release. Regulatory licensing and permit systems (especially for agriculture, food imports, mining equipment, and pharmaceuticals) are described in the Investment Climate Statement as overlapping, opaque or unevenly enforced, which effectively raises cost and time to market. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) accession and trade facilitation efforts are helping, but trade-related non-tariff measures remain a chief source of “behind-the-border” barriers—especially for small and medium-sized exporters, agricultural input importers, and firms unfamiliar with local procedures.

Standards for Trade  

Overview

Mauritania takes a top-down, government-driven approach with regard to Standards for Trade.  Government ministers exercise considerable authority over all contracts and production decisions, which can slow decision-making. The prime minister, and ultimately the president, are also involved in decisions involving high priority sectors.

Standards and Technical Regulations

The Mauritanian regulatory environment is characterized by poor norms and regulations. The recently created Department for Standardization and Quality Promotion (DNPQ) is a Directorate of the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines whose mission concerns standardization, certification, accreditation, and metrology. DNPQ is a correspondent member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Classification of national standards are derived from international ones, and Mauritania accepts standards developed by U.S.-domiciled standards developing organizations.

Testing, Inspection and Certification 

In general, U.S. products meeting U.S. standards can enter the Mauritanian market.  Imported products are rarely tested, and, except under specific situations (such as pork products, alcohol, or chemicals destined for the mining sector), products can enter the country without testing or inspection.

Publication of Technical Regulations 

Please see “Customs Regulations” under the “Customs, Regulations & Standards” section.

Contact Information 

Guichet Unique
Le Guichet Unique (the “Single Window”)
www.singlewindow.mr 
 info@singlewindow.mr

Mauritania Investment Promotion Agency
Agency for the Promotion of Investment in Mauritania
Mauritanian Chamber of Commerce
info@chambredecommerce.mr
 

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 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 is a versatile tool that can be used 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,

  • Receive customized e-mail alerts when new notifications are distributed,

  • Find information on trade concerns discussed in the WTO SPS and TBT Committees.

Per obligation under the TBT Agreement, each WTO Member operates an 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 Enquiry Point. Refer to the comment guidance at https://www.nist.gov/notifyus/commenting 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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