Mozambique Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in mozambique, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
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Trade Standards
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Overview

The Instituto Nacional de Normalização e Qualidade (INNOQ), or the National Institute for Standardization and Quality, is Mozambique’s national standards body. Established in 1983 under the Ministry of Industry and Energy, INNOQ is responsible for defining and implementing the country’s quality policies. It also coordinates all national standardization and quality activities, promoting excellence in manufacturing and services. INNOQ collaborates with regional and international organizations to advance standardization and quality across various sectors.

For more information about the Mozambican standards system, visit INNOQ’s official website.

Standards

Mozambique is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and, under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement), is required to report to the WTO any proposed technical regulations that may affect trade with other member countries. As part of its commitment to international standards, Mozambique participates in ASTM International’s, formally known as American Society for Testing and Materials, Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) program. This program promotes collaboration between national standards bodies and ASTM to increase awareness of standardization systems globally and foster the development of national standards that enhance health, safety, environmental, and economic conditions in partner countries.

The Instituto Nacional de Normalização e Qualidade (INNOQ), or the National Institute for Standardization and Quality, has adopted various ASTM test methods, including those developed by ASTM’s Committee D02 on Petroleum Products and Lubricants, covering a wide range of fuel-related aspects. Recently, Mozambique also adopted the ASTM standard for ethanol blending, marking an important step in aligning with global best practices in fuel quality and environmental standards.
For more information on Mozambique’s standards system and their adoption of ASTM standards, visit INNOQ’s official website.

Testing, Inspection, and Certification

The Instituto Nacional de Normalização e Qualidade (INNOQ), or the National Institute for Standardization and Quality, is a member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and is authorized to issue ISO 9001 certificates. Established as an autonomous body both judicially and administratively, INNOQ has operated under the Ministry of Economy since 2000. As the recognized central authority in Mozambique, INNOQ is responsible for defining and implementing national quality policy, as well as coordinating all standardization and quality activities across the country. INNOQ also accepts foreign laboratory test results, provided they comply with Mozambican standards.

Publication of Technical Regulations

The Boletim da República serves as Mozambique’s official gazette for the publication and dissemination of laws, regulations, and other official acts. Draft bills are typically made available for public comment through business associations, relevant sector groups, or public forums. When changes to laws or regulations are enacted, they are published in the national gazette. However, public consultation is often limited to input from a small number of private sector organizations, such as the Confederação das Associações Económicas de Moçambique (CTA), a non-governmental, non-partisan entity focused on promoting economic and social development. There have been concerns over short timeframes for comments and a lack of transparency in how feedback is reflected in the final legislation. In response to these issues, the government is considering introducing a law that would mandate public consultations for future legislative processes.

Contact Information

Mozambique is covered by the Standards Attaché in South Africa – Tatyana Aguirre, Standards Attaché, Tatyana.Aguirre@trade.gov.

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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