India urges Russia to lower trade barriers for Indian exports amid rouble pile-up

India is reportedly pressing Russia to ease trade barriers on Indian electronics, engineering goods, food products and fisheries in an effort to encourage Moscow to utilise $50-55 billion worth of roubles accumulated in bank accounts due to the oil-driven trade imbalance.

According to The Times of India, Indian exporters are facing multiple hurdles in accessing the Russian market. In the electronics sector, software-related requirements imposed by Russian authorities have emerged as a key obstacle, while stringent standards are delaying shipments of engineering goods. Local language compliance requirements are also proving to be a challenge for some product categories.

“Our goods have to contend with some Russian standards and some Eurasian standards, which makes it tough to export,” TOI quoted a person familiar with the discussions as saying.