India has a potential
for multiplying her food exports manifold provided the exporters
understand the complexity of food safety mechanisms put in place
by India’s trading partners like USA. This was stated by Shri
L.V. Saptharishi, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce &
Industry who chaired the session. While WTO Agreements, specifically
the SPS Agreement, have laid down rules for international trade
in the food sector, it is the responsibility of all countries
to ensure safety of foods exported to other countries since human
health was involved, he added.
The rules for export
of food products to USA are set to change by the end of year 2003
in the light of the enactment of Bio-terrorism Act and all exporters
would have to comply with these rules to be able to export to
USA. This was informed by US officials during interactive session
for Indian exporters with representatives of US food regulatory
bodies organised by the Export Inspection Council of India (EIC)
in Delhi today.
Nearly 100 exporters
and organisations related with Indian exports like commodity boards,
export promotion councils and industry associations participated
in the session which had a team of US officials from US Food and
Drug Administration (USFDA) and US Department of Agriculture (USDA),
two of USA’s official regulatory import control bodies, led by
Mr. Chad R. Russell, Agricultural Counselor from American Embassy
in India while the Indian side comprised Shri A. K. Thakur,
Joint Secretary in-charge of agricultural exports in Ministry
of Commerce and Ms. Shashi Sareen, Director, EIC.
Ms. Sareen informed
the audience during the session that EIC has initiated a dialogue
with USFDA for recognition of EIC’s certification for various
food and agricultural products regulated by them so that such
products exported from India and accompanied by EIC’s certificates
are allowed entry into USA without further inspection and testing
on arrival. It may be added that under an agreement between USA
and India in 1988, USFDA already recognises EIC’s certification
for Black Pepper exported to its market.
US officials informed
that imports of meat and poultry meat products in USA are subject
to stringent phytosanitary measures and that USDA has a system
of assessing equivalence of inspection systems of the exporting
countries with its own systems for which any request from India
would be duly considered.
Meat products are
already under compulsory export inspection and certification and
poultry meat and poultry meat products have been recently brought
under the ambit of compulsory export certification of EIC by the
Central Government under Export (Quality Control and Inspection)
Act.
The exporters highlighted
the need for taking up recognition of EIC’s certification for
products like poultry meat products, basmati rice, spices etc.
on an urgent basis.
During the session,
Indian exporters raised various problems relating to exports to
USA like detention of goods, destruction of consignments after
testing, lack of direct access for exporters to deal with USFDA
in case of any problems and lack of information on USFDA’s requirements
for individual products. They also requested that there should
be a body responsible for providing information on regulatory
requirements of importing countries and also taking up quality
and safety related issues with their regulatory bodies. Shri Thakur
assured the exporting community that Ministry of Commerce would
take up all such problems raised during the session for resolving
them to mutual satisfaction.
