03 August 2011
New Delhi, India
The EU had banned ayurvedic and herbal medicines of some companies due to lack of information about how they work
The European Union (EU) has not imposed a blanket ban on ayurvedic medicines, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said.
"The EU has instead formulated a directive on traditional herbal medicinal products (THMPD), which has trade restrictive impact on India's exports of herbal medicinal products to EU," Azad informed the Rajya Sabha, reports IANS.
"Many ayurvedic products are currently exported as dietary supplements, for which as of now, there is no registration requirement in most of the countries," he added.
However, the Minister added that some countries do require notification of such products. Hence, many products have been notified in countries like Italy, Belgium, Finland and others by some Indian companies.
"India has been doing bilateral consultation with the EU on THMPD since 2004 and has raised concerns on this issue in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee of the World Trade Organisation," Azad said.
The EU had banned ayurvedic and herbal medicines of some companies due to lack of information about how they work. The ban came into force May 1 this year, while the THMPD directive was passed in 2004.
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