FIEO inks MoU with TUV Rheinland

CHANDIGARH: Exporters body FIEO has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian subsidiary of German IT security, testing, training, inspection, consulting and certification company TUV Rheinland.

According to the MoU, TUV Rheinland India will support FIEO members in better understanding the requirements related to standardization, conformity assessment, product & consumer safety. It will also help the exporters meet the growing private standards to enhance their overall market competitiveness and become part of global supply chains.

FIEO members will get technical expertise, advise, training, inspection, testing and certification at subsidized costs under the agreement.

"With the multilateral and bilateral trade agreements taking the order of trade development, tariff barriers are gradually going away," FIEO Director General & CEO Ajay Sahai said in a statement. "However, non-tariff measures - the sanitary and phyto sanitary measures (SPS) and also the technical barriers to trade (TBT) are gaining more relevance, be it for the purposes of standardisation, conformity assessment, product and consumer safety, conforming the environmental and social requirements or for the purposes of being used as tools to restrict imports from competing countries of the world."

Thomas Fuhrmann, managing director at TUV Rheinland India, said the declining trend in Indian exports demand appropriate response towards the growing number of SPS and TBT measures from all the stakeholders, including the government, FIEO and the exporting industry.