(Business in Cameroon) - In Cameroon, 31 August 2016 is the official start date of the Compliance Inspection before Shipment Programme (PECAE) for goods imported to the Republic of Cameroon. In other words, as of this date, all goods to the country will no longer be shipped without prior inspection of their compliance with the standards in force in Cameroon.

To implement this programme, which aims to clean up the Cameroonian market, often rife with questionable products, the government has set its sights on a consortium of companies composed of the Swiss outfit SGS and the British Intertek International. Practically, it will henceforth be up to these structures to carry out, at the exporters' expense, prior compliance inspection before shipment of goods to Cameroon, a country still lacking in state-of-the-art laboratories for verification of conformity of merchandise.

However, if this new measure will contribute to cleaning up the Cameroonian market in ensuring a certain security for consumers, it is feared that it will lead to a price increase of certain imported products in the local market, due to the cost of compliance monitoring before shipment being passed on to the final consumer.

BRM