India, Thailand for mutual acceptance of trade norms

NEW DELHI: India and Thailand have agreed to cooperate on mutual recognition of pre-shipment inspections for exports from both the countries.

Officials of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Thai Industrial Standards Institute (TISI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding for technical cooperation in the fields of standardisation, certification, testing and training.

The MoU, initialled in the presence of Agriculture, Consumer Affairs and Food and Public Distribution Minister Sharad Pawar and Thai Minister of Commerce Krirk-Krai Jirapaet, is the first step toward signing a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) between the two national standards bodies.

The MRA would benefit manufacturers of both the countries as it would remove the repetitive testing and inspection for exporters.

The MoU envisages exchange of information, documents and personnel between the two national standard bodies in the field of standardisation, product certification, management system certification, testing, technical information and training.

"The signing of MoU is expected to facilitate the trade between the two countries," BIS said in a statement.

The trade volume between India and Thailand is USD 3.4 billion.

BIS is responsible for formulation of national standards and operating conformity assessment schemes with the aim of providing quality and safety to consumers.