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

Overview

Uganda’s regulatory framework is predominantly government-driven, although the government often consults with stakeholders.  Standards are drafted and enforced by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), which is supervised by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives.  Uganda is a member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the African Regional Organization for Standardization, the East African Standards Committee, COMESA, the FAO/World Health Organization Codex Alimentarius Commission on International Food Standards, and the World Trade Organization (WTO).  Local standards are developed through the Uganda Industrial Research Institute.  Priority areas for standards with potentially large procurement opportunities are food and agriculture, mechanical and building engineering, metallurgy, energy management, and ICT.

Standards

The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) is charged with developing and checking standards.  UNBS develops some of the standards, but in some cases adopts those developed by others.  UNBS is a member of ISO, Codex Alimentarius, the International Organization of Legal Metrology, and Afrinet.  Uganda applies European Union directives and standards, with some modifications.  Importers/exporters should contact the UNBS for specific information on standards.

Testing, Inspection and Certification

Test certificates from foreign labs are accepted if the lab is UNBS-accredited.  Proposed and final technical regulations and laws are published in the Uganda Gazette (hard copies of which may be purchased at select bookstores in Kampala).  For further details, please contact the Uganda National Bureau of Standards.

Publication of Technical Regulations

The UNBS website provides technical regulations

Contact Information

  • Provide key contact information and list relevant standards and trade organizations. Include the standards point(s) of contact at Post including Standards Attachés where there is one located.
  • List the Standards Attaché for your specific country. You can find your country-specific Attaché and their contact details here.

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 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.

 For EU CCG: Include reference to article with a video on CE Mark: https://www.trade.gov/ce-marking

×

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.

Privacy Program | Information Quality Guidelines | Accessibility