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Flies are pesky things buzzing around that leave you infuriated and frustrated as you try to swat them; but nine times out of ten you miss the things. Today, it’s flies that are at the center of a row that may be far more than just economic and may damage relations diplomatically-speaking between India and the EU.
In 2013 a consignment of mangos was discovered to be infested with fruit flies. As a consequence, the EUdecided that they would impose a ban on the importing of Alphonso mangos, egg plants, bitter gourd, snake gourd and taro, until India complied with EU standards and regulations. The ban came into force this week and will be reviewed during the year. But, it may last until December 2015.
But, while the ban will have very little impact on India as a whole (although it will most certainly affect individual agricultural workers, albeit do little to the Indian economy), it will damage relations between the EU and India.
• Exotic fruits are imported in large quantities by the EU.
• The UK alone imports fruit to the value of $10.64 million (£6.3 million) every year.
• But, as a percentage of the Indian economy fruit exports are just 0.2% of all exports.
• That’s a value of $2.5 billion.
• Mangos make up 5% of all fruit exports to the EU.
So, it’s hardly anything in economic terms. Although that ‘anything’ has an important role to play in the Indian economy and even if it’s not worth significant amounts to affect the Indian economy adversely, it will have an effect on EU-Indian relations. Trade friction will be increased between both parties and that is not good news.
• Europe is India’s largest export market today.
• Indian exports to the EU amount to €38 billion ($52.68 billion).
• 7.5% of all exports to the EU from India are agricultural-related products.
India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma called the decision by the EU as “unfair” and one that would “potentially jeopardize” agricultural trade between India and the EU.
He added that “it is surprising that the EU Commission has chosen to take this unilateral action without any meaningful official consultation”. What has riled the Indian Commerce and Industry Minister is the fact that there was no consultation, that India had already promised to implement new reforms on standards that were decided upon on April 1st and that the number of fruit contaminated by fruit flies was very small. About 6% of fruit imported in 2013 from India to the EU were found to contain fruit flies. Sharma believes that India had done everything to ensure that EU-health standards were going to be met.
Today, all fruit exported to the EU goes through the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which inspects consignment with plant quarantine personnel supervising the process. Sharma stated: “APEDA has, in fact, recently introduced regulations especially for EU-bound consignments, which mandate specific compliance on SPS standards as required by the host country. Therefore, the unprecedented action by EU is even more surprising at this juncture”.
It seems therefore that the EU has taken a decision, despite the fact that the Indian Minister has confirmed that exports only take place to the EU if and when they are in compliance with EU standards and requirements.
Sharma suggested that the ban would damage relations between the two sides: “You will appreciate that such measures coming at a time which is the peak season for such agricultural produce would not inspire confidence amongst our agricultural community for a long-term engagement”. He went on to say : "I must mention that the ongoing negotiations for an India-EU Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement are based on the premise of strong trust and understanding for a more liberal trade regime on both sides”.
A free-trade agreement was first put on the table between the EU and India in 2006. Negotiations began in June 2007 and are still on-going. The EU is providing India with trade-related technical assistance as part of the program.
• The value of EU trade with India has grown substantially from €28.6 billion in 2003 to €79.9 billion in 2011.
• At the same time EU investment in India has also considerably increased: €759million in 2003 to €3 billionin 2010.
• Trade in commercial services has seen the figure multiply by three: €5.2billion in 2002 to €17.9 billion in2010.
India still imposes many tariff and non-tariff barriers on the EU, thus causing hindrance to trade. There are also a number of quantitative restrictions that India imposes as well as import licensing, testing and certification. Customs procedures are also long and administratively time-consuming.
Is this simply a way of telling the Indians to lighten up on their restrictions, without actually causing too much damage to their
Originally posted: Indian Fruit Banned in EU [4]
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