As India considers making its standards benchmarks for importable items more advanced, Bangladesh has to improve its domestic capacity for producing products of better standards to tap the neighbour's market in near future.
Experts made the observation Thursday at a consultation meeting on Non-Tariff Measures in South Asia organised by the South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (SANEM) in Dhaka.
"India is now thinking of enhancing standards of products in line with the ASEAN," said Dr Selim Raihan, a professor of economics at the University of Dhaka.
"The country is aggressively negotiating free-trade deals with some big trade blocs. Thus, higher standards of products are required to match the requirements of advanced countries."
Dr Raihan also said that apart from the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS), the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) is now very much active in ensuring food products' standards.
"The latest episode of Maggi noodles in India clearly shows that how the Indian authority may go for containing harmful elements in food items," he added.
Currently, Nestle is in serious trouble due to detection of higher-than-allowed levels of lead in some packets of popular Maggi noodles. The Indian food safety authority imposed a ban on the food item.
The FSSAI was established in 2011 under the Food Safety and Standards Act. Dr Raihan, also executive director of the SANEM, cited another example of rigid standard testing faced by an exporter of Sri Lanka.
He said that the Lankan company used to manufacture electric sockets and it tried to export the product to India. But the Indian authority asked for 'passing a Tusnami test', that means putting a socket in salty sea water for 48 hours and then checking whether it works or not.
"Finally, the company backtracked on exporting to India," he added.
"Bangladeshi manufacturers and exporters have to take note of this and make serious efforts to improve product standard so that the Indian market could be tapped in a better way," he suggested.
Dr Raihan was of the view that due to tariff reduction across the world, the strict adherence to standards was increasing.
"In fact, the income level of Indian consumers is rising rapidly," said Dr Bazlul Haq Khandker, another professor of economics at the University of Dhaka.
"Thus, they are now looking for and choosing products of higher standards," he added. "So, Bangladeshi products also have to comply with such standards to get a better market in India."
Currently Bangladesh's annual exports to India stand at around $500 million (50 crore) against imports worth $6 billion (600 crore).
Researchers and representatives of trade bodies, who were present at the meeting, also expressed concerns over frequent changes in regulations related to standards.
"For exporters who are trying to enter the large Indian market, it is difficult to deal with frequent changes in standards," said Shaquib Quoreshi, secretary of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka (MCCI).
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Scale up standards to tap Indian mkt, say experts
FF Report | Published: July 03, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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