Germany Key Partner at India’s 6th National Standards Conclave

A delegation from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) participated in the 6^th National Standards Conclave organised by the Department of Commerce (DoC) of the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on 15 and 16 January 2020 in New Delhi. The conference is India’s flagship event on standardisation, technical regulation, conformity assessment, and market surveillance.

In his opening remarks, Mr Stefan Schnorr, Director General at BMWi and head of the delegation, welcomed India’s recognition of the growing importance of international standards for the world economy and consumers worldwide. He emphasised that standards are important accelerators of change and steer the development of new technologies, such as Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence or autonomous driving. Regarding the bilateral trade relationship, Mr Schnorr called upon the European Union (EU) and India to intensify their efforts to re-launch the negotiations for an EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA). These points were also resonated by Mr. Sudhanshu Pandey, Additional Secretary, DoC.

Mr Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, highlighted the urgency and collaborative effort which is needed to raise the quality of Indian products. He sees the harmonisation of Indian with international standards as a crucial step for this. In his speech he appreciated the close collaboration with Germany which he described as a role model for India for achieving high quality products.

Mr Joachim Geiss, Deputy Head of BMWi’s division on product and plant safety, technical harmonisation, market surveillance, presented the Indo-German cooperation on market surveillance. He shared insights on a publication on the regulatory market surveillance framework in the EU and its implementation in Germany which the Global Project Quality Infrastructure (GPQI) is developing on request of DoC. The publication which will be released in the next months, serves as a reference document for Indian market surveillance reforms.

The participation of the German delegation at the National Standards Conclave took place ahead of the 7^th Annual Meeting of the Indo-German Working Group on Quality Infrastructure between BMWi and the Indian Ministry of Consumer Affairs on 16^th and 17^th January 2020 in New Delhi. The Working Group aims to reduce technical barriers to trade, strengthen product safety, and ensure consumer protection between India and Germany. It involves relevant ministries and regulators, subordinate authorities and bodies, industry associations, companies, and technical and scientific institutions.

Further reading: Please find a related press release on the website of DoC.