20

Jul

CHALLENGES OF STANDARDS IN ACCESSING GLOBAL MARKETS

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Anil Jauhri 

New Delhi I Monday I July 20, 2026

Indian industry in general, be it food or pharma or nutraceutical or medical devices, faces twin challenges in the global market in relation to standards:
i)    Regulations of importing countries which means standards imposed by law and to be necessarily met with to access that market
ii)    Voluntary, generally private, standards which are market driven and usually buyers’ demand where one has the option to comply and engage with that buyer or not adopt and let the buyer go
The industry across sectors often raise issue that they face challenges in accessing overseas markets without recognizing the above two distinct requirements clearly which need different treatment.
The world is witnessing growth of regulations across sectors – from health and safety to sustainable practices – and Indian industry has to gear up to meet these regulations.
Any regulation in any country prescribes requirements for the products as also the procedure for demonstrating compliance and securing approval of the designated regulator.
Indina industry has generally across sectors from agrifood to pharmaceuticals utilized this option to gain access to global market.
How can the industry be helped to meet such regulations?
Ideally, since the regulations are on grounds of health or safety or deceptive trade practices or environment, India should have corresponding domestic regulations in place to protect its consumers which are globally compatible and therefore, Indian products as regulated in India, should get accepted in foreign markets.
The reality is that India either does not have regulations in place or even if it has regulations in place, these are incompatible with global regulations, generally less stringent, and hence do not help the industry in accessing overseas markets. Food and pharma are the most vivid examples where the regulations are not at par with global regulations and industry needs to put in extra effort to meet global demand.
The crucial question is: is Indian industry ready for globally compatible regulations in domestic market given that we have a huge proportion of small and micro businesses?
The experience even in such sectors as agrifood and pharma where India is a significant player in exports, shows that not only domestic regulations are not at par with global regulation, we are not in a position to enforce global standards in domestic regulation. One example is of HACCP in food sector – in most developed countries, it is enforced by regulations in high risk sectors such as seafood or meat or dairy whereas FSSAI mentioned IndiaHACCP standard in the preamble of the Licensing regulations in 2011 as an aspirational standard but is not yet able to enforce it by law.
The option therefore is to specifically design certification systems for exports which are globally compatible and which a specific percentage of our industry is able to meet. Such systems can then be presented to the overseas regulators as part of free trade negotiations or otherwise for acceptance so that the products certified in India under this export certification system are accepted abroad.
There are two successful examples of such approach: APEDA’s organic certification system set up in early 2000s which has acceptance of several countries including EU and EIC’s marine product certification system which is similarly recognized by EU and several other countries. 
These systems can either be enforced by law for all exports as is the case for organic and marine products or can be voluntary. 
The Quality Council of India (QCI) developed such voluntary certifications as Ayush Premium Mark and ICMED 13485 Plus for medical devices which are based on global standards and can be similarly presented to overseas regulators for acceptance.
There is frequent talk of mutual recognition under the FTAs India is signing without realizing that we need appropriate systems in place first thing before we can seek acceptance. This has been explained in greater detail in the paper “Negotiating FTAs – Are we ready for MRAs” – pl see link https://www.indiabusinesstrade.in/blogs/negotiating-ftas-are-we-ready-for-mras/
The second challenge is that of private standards which hugely afflicts our agrifood and textiles sectors among others – from GlobalG.A.P. certification for fresh fruits and vegetables like grapes to BRCGS and FSSC 22000 for processed food to Global Organic Textiles Standard or Textiles Exchange for textiles.
These strictly speaking are outside the purview of the government and should be handled by the stakeholders. Typically, in developing countries, governments do get involved in lending a helping hand if not providing solutions outright.
And what is the solution?
There are options here too:
a)    In some sectors, there are voluntary benchmarking systems set up which confer recognition and global equivalence. For example in Forestry, there is the Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) which endorses local schemes. In India, a non profit organization, Network for Conservation and Certification of Forests (nccf.in) came up and has secured endorsement of its Forest management and Trees outside Forests (agroforestry) certifications. In food sector, there is the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) which benchmarks food related certification schemes. QCI would do a service to Indian industry if it gets IndaiHACCP certification scheme benchmarked and industry does not have to pay for foreign certification schemes. Global Coffee Platform has an endorsement system for sustainable coffee standards and Coffee Board, which recently launched a sustainable coffee certification, INDICOFS, aims to be benchmarked. Besides addressing local conditions, the nationally developed schemes, more importantly, bring down the cost of compliance.
b)    Some scheme owners, as they are called, have a system of endorsing a local scheme as equivalent – the IndG.A.P. certification scheme of QCI did have such an endorsement for a while which regrettably has been lost and needs to be secured again. GOTS and Textile Exchange have similar provisions which need to be leveraged for the benefit of the industry. 
c)    Some certification schemes have provision for what can be called a national interpretation to address local conditions and facilitate certification. QCI had prepared a national interpretation of GlobalG.A.P. and got it approved way back in 2013 which was to be used for certification in India.
d)    In case none of the above options is available, the only option is to build capacity through competent training providers and consultants, The Sector Skill Councils should serve the industry by taking up these tasks which are well within their mandate. 
The biggest challenge is the lack of understanding both in the industry as well as the government on pathways to address these challenges. Which is why we have not been able to address the challenges of global markets effectively.

 

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