USFDA to share details of rejected exports with India

In order to enable India take early remedial action on exports rejected by the US, the Export Inspection Council of India (EIC) is signing a confidentiality agreement with the US Food and Drugs Administration (USFDA) for prompt sharing of crucial information related to the rejects. The confidentiality agreement will be put in place soon which will allow India to keep a real time tab on what is happening to the country’s exports and will also enable to try and rectify things as soon as a problem arises so that number of rejections goes down.

Details of all Indian products that are rejected, the reason for rejection, appeals filed, if any, and the final action taken by the US will be supplied to the Export Inspection Council (EIC) by the US Food and Drugs Administration (USFDA) without delay.

At present, while India does get to know when a food consignment gets rejected in the US, it does not get to know immediately the details of who the exporter is and what exactly is being objected to by the US. Once the confidentiality agreement is in place, India will have a more correct picture of the actual number of rejections although the USFDA website will not make any changes in the way it records data.

According to the information available on the USFDA website, the agency has refused entry to 11,664 Indian products which includes medicine, bakery products, fried snacks, spices, basmati rice, fisheries and herbal products, over the last five years. However, Indian Commerce Ministry said that the actual number is lower as the website sometimes double-counts and also does not make corrections when some consignments are eventually allowed after appeals are filed.