Introduction 

Alive to the need for building India's image in the world market based on quality and quality alone, the government had enacted the Export (Quality Control & Inspection) Act, 1963, with the broad objective of sound development of export trade through quality control. The Act provides for power to notify commodities and their minimum standards for export, generally international standards or standards of importing countries as well as suitable machinery for inspection and quality control. Accordingly, the Export Inspection Council was established as an advisory body to the government and inspection machinery was instituted in the form of Export Inspection Agencies at Mumbai, Kolkata, Cochin, Delhi and Chennai with nearly 45 sub offices and laboratories to back up.

Over the years, nearly 1000 commodities were notified by the government for compulsory pre-shipment inspection covering such sectors as chemicals, pesticides, rubber products, engineering products, food and agriculture products, textiles, footwear etc. The food items included basmati rice, pepper, marine products, fruits and vegetables and egg products etc.

Notwithstanding the liberalisation of measures for export in early 1990s with simpler procedures an alternative to compulsory pre-shipment inspection by EIAs, the above Act remains the umbrella Act governing quality of India's exports. 

WTO Regime

In the meantime, especially with the establishment of WTO, the international trade scenario has changed significantly and rapidly. There is growing emphasis on as free flow of trade across borders as possible and all countries have greater access to world markets. In such an environment, the role of international standards has also become very important not only in ensuring that the product is of the desired quality and safe but also in affording opportunities to all countries to benefit from standards and conformity assessment. However, while imposing standards and conformity assessment procedures by member countries, it is necessary that certain rules and disciplines are followed so that the standards/regulations do not act as unreasonable barriers to trade. This aspect has been taken care of through the non-tariff agreements, which basically lay down the rules and disciplines with regard to standards.

One of the most important agreements is the SPS Agreement which stresses on the safety and health aspects and permits member countries to impose such measures as are necessary for protection of human, animal and plant life or health. While encouraging adherence to international standards in respect of quality and safety management systems, it permits them to impose stricter measures provided these are based on scientific justification and other countries have opportunity to comment on this.

Further, the Agreement, through its provision for adherence/adoption of Codex standards, which in turn provide for legislative framework for imports and role for official / governmental  inspection / certification agencies and recognition of such agencies at the exporting country's end through equivalence agreements, encourages members to establish formal systems of import control to ensure appropriate degree of protection for their populace. 

The following are the relevant Codex standards in this regard.

• Guidelines for design, operation, assessment and accreditation of food import and export inspection and certification systems (CAC/GL 26-1997).
• Principles for food import and export inspection and certification (CAC/GL 20-1995).
• Guidelines for food import control systems (under preparation).

It is important to note that all major developed countries have installed strong import control systems in food sector like USFDA in USA, CFIA in Canada, AQIS in Australia and Tokyo Agricultural & Forest Products Inspection Institute in Japan. In addition to the above, these countries, despite their pre-eminent standing in terms of quality, are maintaining export inspection systems as well. The need for having a well developed food quality control systems for export is more significant for some countries.

Indian Scenario

With increased opportunities available to all countries for greater access to world markets, competition is increasing with a demand for a high quality and safe product. Products have often got rejected at the importers end due to which there has, at times, been a loss of credibility of the quality of Indian products in overseas markets. Such rejections have been more frequent in the sensitive areas such as food products. Some of these include rejections due to aflatoxin levels in consignments of peanuts originating from India, pesticide residue levels in rice and fruits, presence of microbial contaminants in marine products etc.. In the case of marine products, a ban had been imposed by the European Union (EU) for four months due to presence of vibrio cholerae in consignments originating from India and measures had to be taken to build up a quality assurance and monitoring mechanism, the effectiveness of which was verified by the EU before allowing Indian marine products to enter into their markets.

FAO's Report of Third Mission on "Implications for India of the Agreement on Agriculture and the Agreement on Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures" paints a grim picture of India's preparedness as follows:

"An area of significant vulnerability however exists for India's future access to international markets. This vulnerability relates to the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. 

There is a significant level of concern in India regarding the real or perceived replacement by some countries of tariff barriers to trade with sanitary and phytosanitary barriers and other technical barriers to trade. These concerns may be well founded based on the increased /emphasis that is being placed on food safety and other sanitary and phytosanitary measures by many countries and the increased emphasis being placed on the inspection and control of imported food and agricultural products. In fact, both the USA and EU recently have taken significant steps to increase the inspection and control of imported foods on the basis of food safety concerns."

It is therefore essential to have a third party inspection and certification mechanism to ensure that products of the right quality are exported so that India's image and credibility are maintained, foreign exchange earnings are increased and risk of rejection at the importing end is reduced. 

In view of the foregoing and especially in the food sector arising out the SPS Agreement and Codex standards, the need for a strong import control mechanism is quite obvious. The need for an equally strong export control mechanism is a natural corollary of such import control systems installed in countries which are the destination of our exports like USA, Canada, EO, Australia, Japan etc. and which have to necessarily have a provision for recognition of export certification systems of their trading partners through equivalence agreements. The export control systems duly recognised would:

• Avoid duplication of inspection, sampling and tests at two levels i.e. at the exporting and importing ends 
• Minimise and even eliminate rejection at the point of entry with the accompanying high costs of recall.
• Take care of variation in quality due to production by small farmers, fisherman or enterprises.
• Ensure that prestige of all Indian products does not suffer due to export of inferior quality products by a single exporter as these would be considered as Indian products and not an individual manufacturer / producers  responsibility.
• Enable official inspection certificates to be given as the same are often required by the buyers.

Export Inspection Council (EIC) was set up under the Export (Quality Control and Inspection) Act, 1963 as an advisory body to the Central Government which is empowered under the Act to:-

· Notify commodities, which will be subject to quality control/inspection prior to export;
· Establish standards of quality for such commodities; and 
· Specify type of quality controlling inspection to be applied to such commodities.

EIC has field offices, the Export Inspection Agencies (EIAs) at Mumbai, Kolkata, Cochin, Delhi and Chennai which have been established for pre-shipment inspection with a network of 45 sub-offices all over the country. Pre-liberalisation, as many as 958 commodities were notified by the government, which were under compulsory pre-shipment inspection. However, as part of economic reforms, export certification procedures were simplified allowing various categories of exporters including star trading houses, trading houses, export houses; EOUs and units under EPZs and FTZs; IPQC units and exporters, who had a firm letter from overseas buyers that official inspection was not required, freedom of exports and pre-shipment inspection and certification by EIC was no longer a compulsory requirement. 

In the WTO regime, the International scene has changed significantly and the role of quality and safety have become important with importing countries demanding a high quality and safe product for their consumers. With this third-party certification has once again gained significance and the role of EIC has therefore become very relevant and important in the area of food. EIC has however had to refocus its efforts to develop standards in line with the international requirements and those of the major importing countries to cover not only the product criteria but also the systems aspect including Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems. The standards, therefore, stress on product and process parameters including good hygienic and good manufacturing practices of the units and cover controls at all stages from raw material through processing, storage and transportation. It has also become necessary to put into place a credible system of certification of quality for export commodities. Some of the areas which have been covered in line with the above, include marine products, meat and meat . products, poultry and poultry products, milk and milk products, basmati rice. Other areas in which notifications are at present in the process of development include honey, animal casing, live fish etc. In addition, EIC/EIAs are offering certification services on voluntary basis to export based industry – both consignment wise as well as a system- based approach.

Towards the principle of equivalence recognised in the SPS Agreement is that of establishing that the standards and certification systems being followed by EIC provide an equivalent level of protection against health risks as those by the importing country. Negotiating bilateral agreements is therefore an important means of facilitating trade by recognition of our system by the importing country. This also ensure that duplication of testing at importing end is reduced and rejections avoided. EIC has initiated Equivalence Agreements with its counter parts in Australia (AQIS), Japan, Canada and Argentina. EIC has already earlier been designated as competent authority by the European Commission for marine products certification and also to issue certificate of authenticity for basmati rice exports to its markets. USFDA has also designated EIAs for compulsory pre-shipment inspection of black pepper under an Agreement with Ministry of Commerce since 1988 before the same are permitted into their country.

A major priority area for EIC is upgradation and modernisation of its five laboratories at Mumbai, Kolkata, Cochin, Delhi and Chennai and getting the same accredited based on international criteria. The laboratory at Delhi is being upgraded for testing of Basmati Rice with regard to requirements given in the EU norms include parameters such as pesticide residue, aflatoxin and microbiological parameters. 

Training is another important activity in which the organisation is laying emphasis. The stress would be on developing the skills of its own personnel with regard to certification and testing as also building up the industry with regard to quality and safety requirements prescribed internationally. A Human Resource & Quality Development Centre has already been established to intensify training activities. A pool of 80 trainers has already been built up through an FAO Project on Manpower Development in Food Safety & Quality which are being utilised for imparting trainings. 

CONCLUSION

Emergence of WTO regime has led to dismantling of barriers - tariff and non-tariff and given impetus to adoption of international standards by member countries both for product quality as well as conformity assessment procedures, thereby ensuring free flow of trade across borders. In the food sector, this scenario provides for official import control systems to safeguard the health and safety of its population. In such an environment, EIC/EIAs, as the official inspection/certification body of India for certifying quality of export commodities, have a key role to play in helping industry gain access to overseas markets through its certification services which are recognised by foreign governments through equivalence agreements. This would ensure that the product exported from India would conform to the requirements of the importing country both for products as well as systems.