No compromise on food standards: India to US

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India has categorically told the US that it will not compromise on the quality and conformity to safety norms for food products and drugs and that it has constituted a working group in the Planning Commission to focus on this aspect.

According to an official press release when the US secretary in the department of health and human services, Michael O. Leavitt called upon the Indian commerce minister Kamal Nath on Thursday evening and tried to impress upon him the need for modifying food safety norms the latter said that India was very conscious of the critical importance of quality and conformity to safety norms, particularly for food and drugs consumed by people and would work out its own norms.

Both the sides discussed the progress of ongoing cooperation in many US-India health and life sciences activities and the safety of consumer products, particularly in the fields of research, vaccine and vaccine production.

There were reports that India was against importing wheat from the US due to the alleged presence of dangerous weeds. The delegation led by the US health secretary raised the issue of India refusing to dilute its safety norms for allowing imports of wheat from the US. New Delhi had also ruled out diluting safety standards to facilitate wheat import from the US.

India imported 5.8 million tonne wheat in 2006, and has also contracted for about 1.8 million tonne in 2007, partially relaxing its quarantine norms. However the US could not participate in the face of India refusing to further lower its quarantine norms.

The US had criticised India's phytosanitary requirements as ‘unrealistic’ and ‘overly stringent’ weed seed standards for imports. "India's current (wheat import) standards translate into higher bread and flour prices for (its) consumers. The prices offered to India in the most recent import tender are significantly greater than recent purchase prices by other wheat importing nations," the US had said in July 2007.

During the discussions, Nath referred to the setting up of a working group by the Planning Commission to focus on quality and food safety issues and recommendations for the implementation of good hygiene and good management practices, in a phased manner. He further stated that India and US have bilateral institutional frameworks to further trade like India-US Trade Policy Forum and the India-US Commercial Dialogue.