Thailand, Indonesia flag India's quality control orders on certain goods in WTO meet

New Delhi: Thailand and Indonesia have raised concerns in a WTO meeting over mandatory quality control norms on certain products, stating the rules are hurting their exports here, an official said.

These trade concerns were raised at the Goods Council meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva.

On this, India has stated that it is committed to facilitating international trade while taking steps to ensure the quality of products, protection of consumers, and human, animal and plant health.

India is exploring organising a bilateral meeting with Thai authorities to discuss these issues, the official said.

Thailand has alleged that it was concerned about delays in India in granting standard marks and import licenses, particularly for copper products, wood-based boards, and tires, which result in undue import restrictions.

Despite Thai manufacturers completing procedures and payments well in advance, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has failed to conduct mandatory on-site inspections as required and no rational or timeline for the delays/resolving the delays, the Geneva-based official said.

The BIS failure to conduct inspections has effectively created import prohibitions and has harmed Thailand's trade, it has said.

Thailand has asked India to postpone or withdraw the measures in question until agencies can ensure equitable and timely processing for all importers and manufacturers in order to prevent unintended trade barriers.

Similarly, Indonesia has raised concerns with the implementation of India's Quality Control Order (QCO) which are creating trade barriers for Indonesian products.

This regulation mandates compliance with standards applied by the BIS that involve lengthy and non-transparent certification processes, as well as lack of certainty regarding factory inspections and certificate issuance timelines.

Affected Indonesian imports include spun yarns and fabrics, plywood and wooden shutters, footwear, medical textiles, and others.

Indonesia said it sees the implementation of these various QCOs as an unnecessary barrier to trade and a potential violation of several WTO provisions, including the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade.

India informed that it would continue to be in touch with Indonesia bilaterally on these issues.