India needs to speedily implement a well defined road map on standards to avoid losing its share in the global market, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth has warned.

“If we are unable to act with clarity and speed, we run the risk of not only exposing our consumers to inferior goods, but also slowly getting excluded from main export markets,” Seth said addressing a ‘standards conclave’ organised by the Commerce Ministry, the CII and the Centre for WTO Studies on Wednesday.

Lax environment Pointing out that India’s manufacturing sector has been accustomed to developing in an environment where standards have been lax, the Cabinet Secretary called for appropriate legislation to provide an instrument to notify standards.

Brainstorming The two-day services conclave, which brings together experts from the World Trade Organisation, the Food and Agricultural Organisation, the International Trade Corporation, the global standard setting body Codex and United Nation’s ESCAP, is first in a series of such meetings to generate inputs to help the Government and industry deal with the high levels of standards being applied globally.

Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher pointed out that standards had effectively replaced tariffs in the international trade discourse.

“Countries around the world are developing higher standards and are designing products to meet these standards. The Indian industry needs to do the same,” he said.

Consultative mechanism Kher said that there was a need to mainstream the acceptance of standards even within the Government and a consultative mechanism needed to be put in place to bring all stakeholders together while formulating standards.

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Director-General Sunil Soni said that while the BIS is the apex organisation for the formulation of standards in India, there were other organisations involved in this process as well.

“There is a need to develop synergy between the BIS and these organisations,” he said.

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