World Trade Organization Organisation Mondiale du Commerce Organización Mundial del Comercio

Colombia 11:

According to paragraph 95 of the Secretariat Report: "Until 2010, safeguard measures could only take the form of duty surcharges. The Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act 2010 (No. 25 of 2010) amended India's safeguard legislation to allow for the use of quantitative restrictions as remedy measures. The amendment allows 'the Central Government, after conducting such enquiry as it deems fit, is satisfied that any goods are imported into India in such increased quantities and under such conditions as to cause or threaten to cause serious injury to domestic industry, it may, by notification in the Official Gazette, impose such quantitative restrictions on the import of such goods as it may deem fit'. The quantitative restrictions may not be applied on imports of goods originating from a developing country if the share of imports does not exceed 3 per cent; or on imports of goods originating from more than one developing country so long as the aggregate of imports from all countries does not exceed 9 per cent of the total imports of such goods into India."

11. What are the criteria in India's legislation for applying quantitative restrictions on imports? What mechanism is used to establish the level of imports subject to a quantitative restriction and how is this maximum level divided across the various exporting countries?

Reply: The Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act,1992 has been amended in August 2010 to provide safeguard measures consistent with WTO Agreement on Safeguards and the corresponding Rules are being formulated. The criteria for applying such quantitative restrictions will be in accordance with the WTO Agreement on Safeguards.

(x) Sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS)

India has a coordinated system of inspection, surveillance and control in the sanitary and phytosanitary sphere. The Report notes that India has nominated three institutions as national enquiry points under the WTO SPS Agreement, namely the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying, and Fisheries for animal health and related issues; the Department of Health for food safety related issues and plant protection; and the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation for plant health or phytosanitary issues. Between 1996 and February 2011, India made 71 notifications to the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.

Imports of animal products require sanitary import permits issued by the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying, and Fisheries, once the relevant risk analysis has been conducted. These sanitary import permits are not licences, but certificates verifying that India's sanitary requirements are fulfilled.

In this connection and given the information contained in the Report, we have no specific questions or comments on SPS matters for this TPR.

(2) Measures Directly Affecting Exports

(viii) Export promotion and marketing assistance