India Plans Pharma Trade Boost in Strategic Meeting

It is a crucial step towards enhancing India’s global trade capabilities in the pharmaceutical and medical devices sectors.

The Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) participated in a high-level strategic meeting convened by the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) in collaboration with the Centre for WTO Studies (CWS), New Delhi. The meeting was chaired by Amit Agrawal, secretary, DoP, and hosted at the CWS, New Delhi.

The meeting aimed to align Indian pharmaceutical's and medical device trade strategies with global trade frameworks, with a specific focus on leveraging the CWS for sectoral analysis of pharma and medical devices.

Representing Pharmexcil at the meeting was its Chairman Namit Joshi, who actively engaged in deliberations alongside senior officials and sectoral experts.

The discussions centred on critical trade and regulatory issues impacting India's exports. Key topics included Harmonized System of Nomenclature (HSN) Classification. Challenges and inconsistencies in product classification were discussed, given their significant implications for tariff applications and trade data standardization.

Also Read:  Pharma exporters push for SOP on direct airport cargo transfers

Product-specific data analysis was deliberated. The need for improved and granular data to support India’s position in multilateral forums was emphasized. Participants deliberated on prevalent tariff structures and technical barriers to trade that Indian exporters face in various international markets.

Further it was concluded that the Centre for WTO Studies will prepare and share a detailed Terms of Reference (ToR) and Action Plan for the sectoral studies. These studies will serve as critical reference documents for ongoing trade negotiations and policy interventions by the Government of India.