Cementing
competence
EIC
ensures that exported products are duly certified and hence are subject
to little or no inspection on arrival, thereby reducing the risk of
rejection, says Shashi Sareen
In
the WTO regime, under the provisions of the sanitary and phyto-sanitary
(SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBT) agreements, member countries
are installing regulatory import control measures primarily from the
standpoint of health, safety and environment. These agreements encourage
member countries to use international standards for product safety
as well as conformity assessment systems in their regulatory mechanisms.
The importing countries around the world are increasingly prescribing
technical regulations, which exporters from India have to necessarily
meet in order to gain access to their markets
The
international scenario
Due
to an increasing worldwide concern about food safety, the importing
countries are not only prescribing stringent measures regarding quality
of incoming food products but also regarding rejections and even destruction
of consignments found to have unacceptable contamination unfit for
human consumption.
Taking
shelter under the SPS agreement, developed countries like EU and US
as well as developing countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka are imposing
stringent requirements on imports, which cover pesticide residues,
contaminants, microbiological parameters, pests, disease as well as
various aspects of hygiene controls. In addition to the end product
criteria, importing countries are also increasingly requiring that
the food items are produced and processed taking into account critical
factors to ensure quality and safety throughout the food chain from
primary production till final consumption.
Challenges
for India
The
Indian agriculture industry has the capability to meet the most stringent
global standards both in terms of product as well as systems and compete
in the international markets. In certain sectors such as marine products,
poultry, and dairy, Indian products are one of the best in the world.
Although
there have been rejections in the recent past, it has been observed
that besides the stated reasons, which deal with quality and resultant
standards, there are other unjustifiable causes of rejections also.
To give some examples, consignments of marine products were rejected
in certain EU member states due to the presence of the microorganism
Vibrio cholerae. When investigated, it was observed that a non-validated
test method was used. Marine products were rejected again due to the
presence of bacterial inhibitors and when analysed it was found that
inhibitors could be permitted chemicals and were not necessarily banned
products. The issue was openly discussed with the health authority
of the importing country and since then unjustified rejections from
that particular EU country have reduced.
Similarly,
in the case of rejection of egg powder due to the presence of residues
of nitrofuran metabolites, it was observed that the EU had not specified
limits for the presence of nitrofuran in egg powder, and the product
was assessed against the standard prescribed for poultry meat. Such
issues go against the provisions of the SPS agreement, which requires
transparency of norms laid down by the EU and in case of presence
of nitrofuran in egg powder the international standards have not been
laid down.
contd...
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