Press Releases

Trinidad and Tobago: Going Metric Again?

The Metrology Act 18 of 2004 “gives effect” to the International System of Units (SI).  The SI is a modernised, scientifically based version of the Metric System.  It is this law that makes the Metric System legal in Trinidad and Tobago.

Those of us that have memories of the 1970’s will ask, “Haven’t we gone metric already?” 

The fact is that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in 1969 took the decision to convert local measurement practice from the traditional British Imperial System to the Metric System.  An elaborate structure emanating from the then Ministry of Industry and Commerce was established to guide the process.

The Metrication Board was established in 1973 to guide the conversion process.  The Board was a multi-sectorial grouping designed to represent a wide swath of local interests.  The detailed work of analysis and implementation was effected by a network of advisory and sector-specific committees.

The work of the Board extended through the advisory committees to the seven key areas of the society and economy.  They were:

1. Education
2. Agriculture
3. Petroleum
4. Transport, Communications and Storage
5. Construction, Electricity and Water
6. Food Processing, Consumer Goods and Services Industries
7. Assembly Type, Related and other Manufacturing Industries

Sixty sector-specific committees were proposed to service these identified sectors.

The 1974 policy statement of the Metrication Board from which much of this information was gleaned also envisaged a pivotal role for the fledgling Bureau of Standards in the process of establishing the basis of the new unit system.

The Historical record will reflect that the work of the Board and its committees was extensive and covered a number of years.  The Board was disbanded in 1987 and its final responsibilities passed on to the Bureau of Standards. 

The Board had not completed one of its major objectives - the replacement of the existing laws on Weights and Measures.  A committee was set up to revise the existing legislation and to draft new statutes but the resulting Metrology Bill was not successfully piloted through Parliament.  Acceptance of the Bill by the Houses took a further 14 years.

The lack of definitive legislation in the area of measurement has resulted in a number of structural shortcomings in our economy and society.  A system of National Measurement Standards was never developed.  Such standards provide the physical basis for ensuring that the required levels of accuracy and precision are known and appropriately applied.  Calibration and verification of measuring instruments and processes are useless exercises without some degree of traceability to recognised measurement standards.

In the absence of compelling legislation and enforcement, a number of industries never made the conversion or made the conversion and then reverted to the imperial system. Others converted from the traditional UK imperial system to the US imperial system which has some significant differences in the area of volumes and capacity.

In some industries, construction being a good (or bad) example, quantification has been plagued with inexactitude.  In a survey conducted by the Bureau several years ago we found more than four sizes of steel bars being sold as “half inch”.  None of them was actually half inch.  There are numerous complaints about the lengths of steel bars.  Sand and gravel are sold by the “yard” which is an indeterminate quantity.  Under the Act both the units used and the physical quantities themselves are controlled and can be examined to ensure compliance. 

It was the intention of the drafters of the metrication policy that the establishment of the National Measurement System under the SI system should be driven by the Bureau.  This aspect of the Metrication process was always intended to be the Bureau’s job.  The original plan will be fulfilled as the Metrication Process will be addressed very early in the life of the TTBS Metrology programme.  A small Unit will be set up to survey the application of measurement units in the same sectorial framework applied by the original metrication policy makers.

There are many benefits to be gained by the structured application of the SI system within a modern traceable measurement system.   After 37 years of trying, Trinidad and Tobago needs to reap some of these benefits.