The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) is today expected to officially re-launch it inspection of foods, medicines and other related goods across Liberia.
Minister Axel Addy said his ministry will carry out a month-long technical inspection program throughout the country.
According to him, the technical inspection is expected to start in Monrovia and its environs beginning Friday November 22, 2013 and will cover four technical areas including weights and measures, food safety, industrial standard and storage facility standard among others.
In response to whether inspection will affect costs of commodities, the Commerce Minister said the best practice is not regulating prices but to monitor prices so as to avoid people taking advantage of it.
"If the ministry commit itself to regulating prices now, he said it means we have to have thousand of inspectors who will be at every point of entry to look at invoices as the imported coming to the country".
"When the importer brings in the goods, it goes to the distributors, from there it goes to the retailer and then to the consumer. It means those points have to be monitored also", he added.
The Commerce Minister who spoke yesterday at MICAT weekly press briefing said his ministry is working on something he referred to as "consumer price index."
According to him, bulk of the commodities is used by majority of the Liberian people who incomes are low and as such it is the ministry target to firstly monitor those sectors.
The exercised, he said, is to compliment other actions throughout the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to drive more opportunities to improve the environment for trade in Liberia, from incorporating standards into the way consumers and businesses interact to ensuring that the Ministry itself operates in a more fiscal, process, and data-oriented manner.