New Delhi, July 27 -- India and the UK have agreed to create a subcommittee on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures to address regulatory barriers in agricultural and food trade as part of their free trade agreement (FTA).

This move is aimed at ensuring that plant, animal, and food safety rules do not become unjustified obstacles to market access, while also allowing the two sides to protect public health based on scientific principles.

Given the high degree of UK safety stipulations and relatively lax Indian regulations, enforcement of these measures is expected to address problems such as fertilizer residues in Indian agricultural exports.

According to the FTA document, the agreement grants India duty-free access to over 95% of ...