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EU, India to work together to overcome sanitary, phytosanitary barriers
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Saturday, 20 August, 2016, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Pushkar Oak, Mumbai
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fiogf49gjkf0d fiogf49gjkf0d Following repeated rejections in several countries on India’s export consignments, the European Union (EU) and India will work together to study sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) concerns behind these rejections.
The study, titled SPS Barriers to India’s Agriculture Exports: Learning from the EU Experiences in SPS and Food Safety Standards, will be conducted to provide detailed recommendations to overcome these export barriers.
Under the project, a study entitled Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Barriers to India’s Agriculture Exports: Learning from the EU Experiences in SPS and Food Safety Standards is being conducted jointly by Ecorys Netherlands, Ecorys India and Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), an autonomous non-profit research organisation engaged in policy-oriented research.
Dr Arpita Mukherjee, professor, ICRIER, informed, “The objective of the study is to identify SPS barriers faced by the Indian exporters in the EU markets with respect to agriculture and processed produce focusing on selected products like mangoes, grapes, basmati rice, peanut and peanut products, mushroom, green peas, beans, dairy products and eggplant.”
EU ensures support
The EU is funding capacity building initiative trade development (CITD) project with the objective to enhance the capacity of India’s trade-related regulatory institutions and enforcement systems in order to meet international standards.
“The duration of the project is between 2013 and 2017. An agreement to this effect has been signed between the Department of Economic Affairs and the EU Delegation, and the Department of Commerce is the nodal point for facilitating implementation of the project,” said Mukherjee.
“EU is very supportive of the study. Our survey showed that EU standards are even higher that Codex standards which is an issue for Indian exporters. But an even bigger issue is that neither the exporters nor the governments of key exporting states such as Maharashtra and Gujarat are aware of such an EU-funded capacity-building project under which exporters can be trained,” she added.
Background
Over the past few years, India’s agricultural exports to the EU have faced several barriers related to plant and animal safety. Some of the notable instance include the presence of excessive aflatoxins in Basmati rice, the incidence of fruitflies in mangoes and presence of pesticides beyond the regulated level in grapes, among others.
India has a positive trade balance in agriculture with the EU, and therefore, it is in India’s interest to remove these barriers.
The study aims to make policy recommendations to remove these barriers through domestic reforms and greater collaborations with the EU. The project aims to benefit the Indian exporters.
Also, given that India and the EU may launch India-EU trade negotiations soon, the study can provide inputs for the negotiations.
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