India will bar imports of all non-HSN products: commerce minister
15 Jan 2020
No imports will be allowed into the country without HSN code, union minister of commerce and industry and railways Piyush Goyal said in New Delhi today. He was speaking at the Sixth National Standards Conclave on Standards for Trade Facilitation.
HSN code (or Harmonized System of Nomenclature), has been introduced for the systematic classification of goods all over the world. HSN code is a 6-digit uniform code that classifies over 5,000 products and is accepted worldwide
Goyal further said that henceforth there must be zero tolerance for substandard products and services from industry and consumers. He further stated that the government will support industry in every way to establish standards for Indian goods and services to meet international requirements so that brand India is recognised in the world as a provider of quality products and services.
“Unless Indian business and industry make standards its calling card, India will not be able to reach the target of a $5 trillion economy, said Piyush Goyal. The government is committed to establishing standards of Indian products and services to world class levels, which will enable our exports to be accepted globally due to the quality of goods and services,” the minister said.
He said `Made in India’ should carry the commitment of 1.30 billion people towards quality, sincerity, customer satisfaction and not be second best.
The commerce minister further said that it is an unfortunate reality that the free trade agreements (FTAs) entered into with other countries has not led to the growth of India’s trade and business because the poor quality of the products and services that get restricted with non-tariff barriers when exported. He further stated that the number of Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) in countries like the US (8,000), Brazil (3,879), China (2,872) and India with (439), illustrates the manner in which India and rest of the world are looking at the concept of quality in products and services.
Goyal said the time has come to get out of the mindset of subsiding exports and adopt the mantra of `zero defect zero effect’ in order to ensure that emerging India will be the destination for quality products and services. The need of the hour is to get cracking towards a zero defect policy, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has articulated a number of times, he said.
The minister informed that the new Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act is relooking at all standards for goods and services in order to balance the interest of consumers with that of the industry which will enable the culture of quality to take root in the country and production or import of substandard products and services will not be tolerated any longer.
He urged BIS, FSSAI and other departments of the government, that are mandated to set up and establish standards, to work in mission mode so that goods and services produced and imported in India meet international quality requirements. This will help India to engage with the world on equal and reciprocal terms.
He called for a collaborative approach by the government, industry and consumer in setting up and upgrading standards to give the best products and services to the consumers and also ensure the protection of the environment.
The Sixth National Standards Conclave, being held in Delhi on 15-16 January, is organised by Department of Commerce of the ministry of commerce and industry, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Export Inspection Council of India (EIC), National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) and the Centre for Research on International Trade.