Raising concerns over increasing substandard and cheap imports, Commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that increasing tariffs or imposing quantitative restrictions alone will not be able to stop undesirable imports and hence the country needs to strengthen the domestic standards regime for products.
The minister stressed on the need to set standards for every sector of the economy to safeguard themselves, and said that these standards are required to meet global demand as well as for the benefit of Indian consumers. Strong standards and regulatory framework would help domestic industry to become competitive globally as well as in the domestic market.
She further said that the country has set high benchmarks for IT-ITeS, health, higher education which other sectors can follow and added that small and medium sectors will need hand holding to be able meet these standards. In order to institute product standards, the Commerce ministry is looking to identify all products which endanger the safety, security, environmental and heath of human beings.
The minister’s statement came in backdrop of large number of trade agreements being negotiated worldwide, leading to a reduction in average global tariff rates along with an increased usage of technical regulations or mandatory standards globally.