subsidies,” he said. Irrigation water, electricity, diesel are heavily subsidized for farmers. Moreover, all agricultural products require import license, SPS certificate and import permission from Plant Quarantine Authorities (PQA).
Another barrier is that all food products are tested by Port Health Authority (PHA), Malhi said, adding that most of the time officials are absent and samples have to be sent to other labs causing delays.
“Most of all, the results of lab authorities cannot be challenged,” he said, adding that the certificates from Pakistani labs are not accepted, but other international labs are accepted only. Another textile exporter said it is ironic that only low value added textile products are granted access to the Indian market. “Importers are required to submit shipment samples in government laboratories that ensure that hazardous dyes are not present in the product, as specifications and standards certified by company labs are unacceptable.”
Even certificates of international standards and other international certifications such as SJS are unacceptable. He said only Pakistan Standard Institute certificate is required from a textile testing lab accredited by the National Accreditation Agency of Pakistan. “This facility is not present in Pakistan,” he added.
Therefore, all Pakistani samples are tested and certificates for these are granted by Indian agencies. More than 25 percent of the samples are drawn for test and the validity of the test is six months only. Further, the sampling itself takes around three months and the fee for that is very high. The procedures for collecting samples are also cumbersome.
“All this has impeded export of high quality Pakistani apparel to India,” he explained.
The export orders of small quantities also become unfeasible to execute. Indian restrictions are so stiff that even automatically generated invoices by manufacturers are unacceptable and have to be reformatted.
Leather sector player Shiekh Muhammad Arshad said there is a demand for Pakistani leather in the Indian footwear industry. This is the reason that the NTBs on leather are few and Indian value added export industries get the import licenses for leather without any hitch. However, the leather footwear in India is on the negative list, he said. “Other finished leather made products are subjected to extensive sampling,” Arshad said, “Usually the packaging, so vital for finished leather products, is badly damaged during inspection of goods and sampling procedures.”
The cement sector players also pointed out delays in inspection of factories by Indian quality inspectors. They said the quality licenses are granted for one year and procedure of granting the license takes up to six months.