Several of the Indian measures were questioned at the last meeting of the WTO’s Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade.
Amongst other concerns, India was asked by the Republic of Korea to align its measure on refrigerating appliances with international standards, while India asked the European Union to review why the Netherlands and Italy were not accepting test certificates for electrical equipment issued by the Central Power Research Institute, a widely recognized body.
India’s 5 recent measures which are the new entrants in the list of measures being questioned by other Member countries are,
- Draft Food Safety and Standards (Import) Amendment Regulation, 2020 (questioned by USA and Mexico),
- Flat Transparent Sheet Glass and Safety Glass (Quality Control) Order (quizzed by Republic of Korea),
- Refrigerating Appliances (Quality Control) Order, 2020 (questioned by the Republic of Korea),
- Caustic Soda Quality Control Order, 2017 (quizzed by Chinese Taipei) and
- Plain Copier Paper (Quality Order) 2020 (questioned by Indonesia).
In total 20 new specific trade concerns, as introduced/proposed by Members were questioned.
India on its part, other than questioning the EU on non-recognition test certificates as mentioned above, also questioned China on Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances Produced or Imported in China (‘IECSC’) requiring mandatory registration of certain chemicals for import and not notified at WTO.
Nigeria’s final measure for onerous testing and conformity requirements by Societe Generale de Surveillance, (SGS) for machinery and their parts was also questioned by India.
It may be noted that India’s various other Quality Control Orders are already in the list of 61 previously raised specific trade concerns. India’s share here is 12.
