India's government has issued two circulars advising of a change in enforcement of the dairy certificate requirement for imports as it relates to Chapter 17 and 35 dairy products. 

Previously, India only enforced a requirement for the India model dairy certificate for dairy products in Chapters 4 (basic dairy products) and 21 (ice cream; milkfat preparations) of the tariff schedule. Imports of Chapters 17 (lactose) and 35 (WPC 80, WPI, casein, MPC 85) entered into India without the need to provide a USDA dairy certificate. As of May 2020, India's government has issued one notice advising that their model certificate is now needed for imports of goods of Chapter 17 and another notice advising the same for products of Chapter 35. (Note: The memo for the policy change to Chapter 35 products is not publicly available.)

USDEC has alerted the U.S. government to these shifting requirements and is now working with FAS and USTR to urge the Indian government to grant flexibility for consignments shipped prior to the date of these respective announcements. If you have not already provided Sandra Benson details on detained consignments of Chapter 17 and 35 products now in India, or those that are likely to be detained because they were shipped prior to the policy change, please contact her ASAP at sbenson@usdec.org.

USDEC continues to work to gain market access to the Indian market. We will notify membership as soon as there is a conclusion to the ongoing U.S.-India trade negotiations, which include dairy access discussions. Please contact Shawna Morris at smorris@usdec.org with any questions on the status of the negotiations.