India Notified to WTO: BIS Standards on chemicals and petrochemicals

India is finalizing plans to increase the number of chemicals and petrochemicals to be covered by mandatory certification. The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, the responsible authority to issue list of products on which mandatory certification is to be required, plans to make 72 chemicals and petrochemical standards mandatory. Within these standards, domestic and foreign companies will be required to obtain permits before they can import, manufacture, or use the affected substances. 

Since 2018 India has notified 29 mandatory standards covering 32 substances to WTO:

• Notification for Phthalic Anhydride, Poly Aluminium Chloride and Caustic Soda (with notification deadline for comments in Feb. 2018, June 2019 and Jan. 2020)
• 21 standards (covering 22 substances) notified to WTO (with deadline for comments of April 2020)
• 5 standards (covering 7 substances) were notified to WTO (with deadline for comments of Sep. 2020)

The purpose is to standardise the chemicals to conform with the harmonised system of coding, which is followed internationally and make it more transparent in order to reduce fake and substandard quality. The Bureau of Indian standards (BIS), the national Standards Body of India, will be responsible for the certifying and enforcing agency for these mandatory standards.