The Minister of Economy and Trade in the Tripoli based Libyan government, Mohamed Al-Hwej, issues a decision (No. 776 of 2023) to suspend for 6 months his previous decision No. 485 of 2023.
Decision 485 had obliged all importing companies to place labels/data on supplied products on the inner and outer packaging of the imported commodity in Arabic.
The Ministry of Economy said the suspension is to give a formed committee time to complete its review of the labelling decision in accordance with the proposals of the Libyan Business Council (LBC) and the Union of Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Importers objected to regulation change
It is worth noting that the LBC / a group of leading importers had threatened to take the Economy Ministry to court citing the short lead time given to importers / their international suppliers to change labelling to Arabic. Some importers said some international manufacturers would not be prepared to change labelling just to suite the Libyan market.
