New Delhi: The Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) on Tuesday urged the government to exclude medical equipment and consumables from the list of EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) items.
This comes in view of the steep growth in imports of medical devices from Europe and other countries into India amidst the ongoing India-EU FTA talk.
In a letter written to the Commerce Ministry, the AiMeD noted that the imports of medical devices in India have grown at a staggering rate of 68 per cent in the last four years.
Currently, India is dependent on imports to the tune of 70 per cent.
At a time when India’s existing import duty on medical devices is already very low (0.0 per cent-7.5 per cent), bolstering imports further by including these medical items in the EU-FTA list would not only jeopardise the medical security of India but also prove to be highly detrimental to the domestic manufacturing industry, said Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator, AiMeD.
Previously, India signed the Japan-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (JICEPA) but the imports of medical equipment from Japan have risen from Rs 1,826 crore in FY20 to Rs 3,085 crore in FY24, a jump of 19 per cent.
Similarly, India inked the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (ISCECA) but the imports from Singapore have jumped from Rs 4,294 crore in FY20 to Rs 6,779 crore in FY24.
Germany and the Netherlands, both EU countries, are already among the top five exporters of medical devices to India.
“EU has many non-tariff barriers for Indian imports into any EU nation. We need a Tit-for-Tat policy from India’s side. Indian manufacturers require CE Certification to sell to EU nations which is not only an expensive affair but also leads to a lot of time wasted in getting the certification — approximately 2 years,” Nath said.
He urged the government to bring a policy “where inspection of EU factories and verification of compliance to Indian Medical Device Rules (MDR) and also of Domestic Content in EU factories is done by Indian regulators.”
“The government should make it mandatory for factories in foreign countries to be inspected by BIS and CDSCO in case of medical devices which are far more crucial than simple plastic items,” said Mr Nath.
The AiMeD informed that China, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Argentina, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, New Zealand, etc. have gained much more than India after FTAs were signed by Indians.
–IANS