G/TBT/W/517  
 
23 April 2018  
(18-2488) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
 
INDIA — AMENDED REGULATION ON TOY IMPORTS  
STATEMENT BY THE EUR OPEAN UNION TO THE C OMMITTEE ON TECHNICA L BARRIERS TO TRADE  
21 AND 22 MARCH 2018  
The following communication, dated 16 April 2018, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of the European Union . 
 
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1.  The European Union notes that the "Amendment in Policy conditions No.2 to Chapter 95 of ITC 
(HS), 2017 - Schedule 1 (Import Policy)" of the Indian Ministry of Commerce & Industry was 
adopted with immediate effect on 1 Sep tember 2017, but it has been notified only on 7 December 
2017. The notification has been made under Article 2.10.1 and Article 5.7.1 of the TBT Agreement. 
In this respect, the EU would like to recall that according to these provisions, Members shall 
indica te "the objective and the rationale of the technical regulation, including the nature of the 
urgent problems ". In the notification, India only included a short reference to the objective of the 
measure, i.e. safety of children, but provided no indication o f the nature of the urgent problems.  
2.  The EU underlines the importance of providing such indication, given the impact of the urgency 
procedure: there is no possibility for Members to comment on the notified draft before its adoption 
and there is no reasonab le lead time for producers in exporting countries to adapt.  
3.  The notified measure requires toys imported into India to be tested by a test laboratory 
accredited by NABL, India. The EU expresses its concerns with regard to such obligation for third -
party tes ting, which is costly and time -consuming, especially for producers in exporting countries 
who are, as a result, obliged to duplicate testing with very limited or no added value in terms of 
safety.  
4.  In this context, the EU recalls that, pursuant to Article 5 .1.2 of the TBT Agreement, "conformity 
assessment procedures shall not be stricter or be applied more strictly than is necessary to give 
the importing Member adequate confidence that products conform to the applicable technical 
regulations or standards, ta king account of the risks non -conformity would create".  
5.  The notified measure replaces the earlier requirement according to which imported toys had to 
conform to international standards (such as ISO 8124) and testing had to be done by laboratories 
accredite d under ILAC MRA. The EU urges India to explain the rationale for this change in policy, 
and to consider allowing conformance to the relevant international standards as an alternative to 
the BIS standards. Can India confirm that the amended regulation allo ws NABL accreditation to be 
granted to international laboratories, i.e. laboratories that are not located in India?  
6.  The EU would also like to raise certain issues related to the implementation of the amended 
regulation. Difficulties and delays faced by int ernational laboratories in getting accredited by NABL 
could lead to a situation in which the amended regulation corresponds to a de facto in -country 
testing. This would be particularly concerning. Can India please clarify whether international labs 
have ap plied and whether accreditation is being processed expeditiously?  
7.  Second, the EU would like to ask India to clarify the issue of the validity period of test reports. 
Uncertainties on this point are likely to create additional problems to foreign producers.  The EU 
considers that a test report should not have limited validity as long as there has been no change to G/TBT/W/517  
 
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  the material or the production process or in standards. At the very least, test reports should 
remain valid for a minimum of 36 months.  
 
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