Quality control orders under India-EU FTA focus on standards, not trade barriers

Quality control orders, or QCOs, are meant to raise product standards in India and not block imports, a senior government official said on Thursday. The official said these rules are based on safety, security and sustainability needs. The comments came as India and the European Union worked on an India-EU free trade agreement.

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Darpan Jain, Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce and India’s chief negotiator for the India-EU free trade agreement, spoke at an event on the pact. Jain said the draft deal aimed to prevent such rules from slowing India-EU trade. Jain also pointed to provisions that allow review and consultation later.

India-EU free trade agreement and QCOs

Addressing concerns raised by some EU firms, Jain said the agreement’s technical barriers to trade chapter covered technical regulations. These include measures such as QCOs. Jain described QCOs as quality conditions tied to safety, security and sustainability. Jain said reforms were ongoing as more goods were assessed under this approach.

"It QCO is a quality requirement based on safety, security and sustainability criteria -- either one or a combination thereof. There are a number of reforms which are happening on that, more and more products are being looked at as to how we can enhance the quality ecosystem in India... the intent is not to make it trade restrictive but find ways to enhance quality of products available in the Indian market, so that is the objective,\" he said.

Jain said the India-EU free trade agreement was designed as a \"living agreement\". Jain said this was because it included review clauses and consultation processes. Jain also sought to reassure businesses about the handling of these issues. \"I think you should not feel worried about it, you should not have any apprehensions about it. It is something which is taken care of as far as India-EU trade is concerned,\" Jain said.

India-EU free trade agreement and CBAM concerns

Jain also referred to the EU’s CBAM, or carbon border adjustment mechanism. Jain said CBAM had been presented as a measure that was \"very very difficult\". Jain noted that some Indian sectors, including steel, had flagged worries about the mechanism and its effect on exports to the EU.

CBAM is the EU’s border carbon tax on certain imports. It charges importers for emissions embedded in goods made outside Europe. The mechanism places a carbon price on foreign producers selling into the EU. It is seen as a climate-linked trade barrier for carbon-heavy goods.

Jain said policymakers needed to address the regulator’s concerns without blocking trade. Jain said this required a careful trade-off during talks. \"...but we have to find a way to address the concerns of the regulator while ensuring that trade is not restricted. So I think thats a tough balance to achieve and we are at that direction,\" he added.

The official’s remarks linked India’s domestic quality rules and the EU’s climate measures to the wider trade talks. Jain said QCO reforms aimed to improve goods sold in India, while the FTA tried to manage effects on India-EU trade. Jain also said CBAM concerns were being handled through efforts to balance regulation and market access.

With inputs from PTI