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New Delhi: Dairy products could become the reason for a duel between Indian and US trade officials as the latter expect easing of stringent sanitary conditions imposed by India on import of foreign milk and related derivatives. India imports foreign milk products, which have drugs, pesticides and heavy metal residues, only below a permissible level benchmarked by international agencies like Codex Alimentarius Commission. Moreover there are seven other sanitary conditions that have to be fulfilled, before foreign milk products are let into India, according to a report in The Financial Express.
The United States Trade Representative (USTR) office lists these sanitary conditions as trade restrictive. "As for the dairy restrictions, India maintains more stringent maximum residue levels on imported dairy products than it does for domestic products," says an assessment made by the USTR office.
"The US has asked for relaxation in the policy. But the commerce ministry officials told the USTR officials that the standards are necessary for India to protect its population from harmful products. The US only has to comply with the standards to export their dairy products. There is no barrier," said an official. In October 2006, the US had offered that it would attest its dairy products saying that it is for human consumption. But India had rejected the offer.
Apart from the sanitary permits, the import of dairy products does not face any restriction. Effective import duties charged by India on dairy products range from 31% to 68.2%. The sanitary restrictions also protect the 75 million rural families, which account for 98% of India's dairy output from cheap imports. However, Chinese products are not allowed into India after the melamine adulteration scandal there.
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