India weighs keeping pre-shipment inspections for scrap metal imports
India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade said no decision has been taken to discontinue the pre-shipment inspection requirement for scrap metal imports, after a recyclers’ body petitioned for screening at Indian ports instead.
By Neha Arora NEW DELHI, Sept 30 (Reuters) — India has yet to decide whether to discontinue scrap import rules based on overseas certification, in line with a demand from a group of recyclers that backs domestic inspection at Indian ports instead. In a petition, a leading recyclers' body cited the lack of an adequate number of agencies globally as a reason for India, a leading recycler of scrap, to switch to screening at domestic ports, "No decision has been taken to discontinue the pre-shipment inspection requirement," the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, a part of India's trade ministry, told Reuters in a statement.
It was weighing the representation from the recyclers' body, the Material Recycling Association of India, and was open to further easing compliance, it said. "As it stands today, pre-shipment inspection and destination port screening serve different purposes and are not interchangeable," it said. India imports about 13 million metric tons of recyclable metal scrap every year from more than 160 countries, with 2,500 containers arriving each day. In many source countries, either no authorised inspection agency is available or inspection depends on a single agency, the MRAI said in its September 19 petition.
The trade body said pre-shipment inspection is a "source-side safeguard," that can detect non-compliant consignments, such as radioactive material, arms, ammunition or explosives, before they are shipped. " The trade body is working to extend recognition to more pre-shipment inspection agencies globally to tackle the supply gap and also to expand the list of safe countries or regions whose consignments are deemed not to need inspection, it added. com; X: neha_5;)