Question : Ban on Chinese Products

(a) whether the Government has taken/proposes to take any steps to impose ban on Chinese products;
(b) if so, the details thereof; and
(c) if not, the reasons therefor?

THE MINISTER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a) to (c): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) to (c) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 155(H) FOR ANSWER ON 27th JULY, 2022 REGARDING “ BAN ON CHINESE PRODUCTS”.

(a) to (b): India and China, are both members of the WTO, and any trade restriction imposed must be WTO compliant. Government has from time to time reviewed and taken WTO compliant measures to address the concerns raised by various stakeholders to have a holistic global trade strategy.
India has not imposed any country specific ban on imports. However, as per the import policy of the Government, all goods imported into India are subject to domestic laws, rules, orders, regulations, technical specifications, environment and safety norms that are notified from time to time and Government takes appropriate action including ban on goods if these are found to violate these regulations or have implications for national security.
The import policy of Government for goods is ‘free’ except when regulated by way of ‘Prohibition’, ‘Restriction’ and ‘Exclusive Trading’ through State Trading enterprises (STEs) on the grounds of (i) public morals, (ii) protection of human, animal or plant life and health, (iii) protection of patents and copy rights, (iv) protection of national treasures of artistic, historical and archaeological value, (v) conservation of exhaustible resources; (vi) prevention of trade in fissionable materials, (vii)of traffic in arms , ammunition and implements of war.
The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) is empowered to recommend restrictions on import of a product by imposition of additional duty or quantitative restrictions (QRs) if Indian industry is ‘seriously injured’ or ‘threatened with injury’ on account of surge in imports or unfair trade practices. Currently, 61 Anti-dumping measures and 4 countervailing duty measures are in force on Chinese products.

Some examples of industry specific measure are as below:
(i) For toys, the Government has issued Toys (Quality Control) Order, 2020 on 25 Feb 2020 through which toys have been brought under compulsory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification with effect from 1 Jan 2021. This QCO is equally applicable to domestic manufacturers as well as foreign manufacturers who intend to export their toys to India. As per this QCO, it is mandatory for toys to conform to Indian standards and bear the standard ISI mark under licence from BIS and no person shall manufacture, import, distribute, sell, hire, lease, store or exhibit for sale any toys without the ISI mark. This will curb import of substandard toys.
(ii) Similarly, compulsory registration under “Electronics and IT Goods (Requirement of Compulsory Registration) Order 2012” addresses safety standards for 63 notified electronic products including mobile phones. The stock, sale, import, manufacture, etc. without having valid Registration and Standard Mark of these items is prohibited.
(iii) In the chemicals and fertilizer sector, the Government has issued the Quality Control Orders (QCO) dated 16.6.2020 whereby in accordance with Section 16 of the Bureau of Indian Standards Act 2016, 14 chemicals shall conform to the corresponding Indian standards and shall bear the Standard Mark under a licence from the Bureau as per Scheme-I of Schedule-II of the Bureau of Indian Standards (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018.
(iv) In the Electrical machinery sector such as Air conditioners, the Government has issued the Air Conditioner and its related Parts, Hermetic Compressor and Temperature Sensing Controls (Quality Control) Order, 2019, which specifies that specified goods shall conform to the corresponding Indian standards and shall bear Standard Mark under a licence from the Bureau as per Scheme I of Schedule-II of the Bureau of Indian Standard (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018.
To support and expand domestic capacities, the Government has implemented policies to promote domestic manufacturing like the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes in line with the Atmanirbhar Bharat policy to reduce dependence on imports, at an estimated outlay of Rs. 1,97,000 cr fully funded by the Central Government covering inter-alia sectors such as drug intermediates and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, medical devices, telecom and networking products, automobile and auto components, advance chemistry cell battery, white goods, textile products, specialty steel, drone and drone components, etc. In addition, in order to promote semi conductor industry, the Government has formulated a scheme amounting to Rs. 76,000 cr.
(c): Does not arise in view of (a) and (b) above.
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