‘WTO intervention undue’: India’s hit send on laptop import issue

New Delhi

Government on Wednesday said that the WTO cannot intervene when it comes to security norms for the import of laptops or hardware into India. Top government officials said the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) will come out with details of the new import regime soon.

“Security or trust is not something that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) can intervene in. We are determined to build a trusted digital backbone/ digital ecosystem, and beyond that we will have zero tolerance/zero compromise...soon DGFT will come with details on that,” said a senior official at Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY).

Outcry Fallout

The response came after reports that the US, China, Korea and Taiwan had raised concerns on India’s decision to impose import restrictions on laptops and computers in a meeting of the WTO recently. The concern was flagged in the meeting of WTO’s Committee on Market Access, chaired by Renata Crisaldo of Paraguay on October 16, in Geneva.

• Also read: US, China seek clarity on India’s import management system for computers kicking in from Nov 1 

“Nobody today who is selling will want any disruption because nobody wants the status quo to change...we are very clear and absolutely determined that we want an absolutely trusted supply chain for the Indian digital ecosystem, especially when we are just going to take off and the entire Internet is going to be based on servers, cloud and data centres. We certainly want to ensure that the data centre that we have is safe,” the official said.

Vocal for Local

The DGFT on August 3, had issued a notification imposing licensing conditions on imports of laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers (PCs), and ultra-small form factor computers and servers applicable with immediate effect.

MeitY had said that the process would address India’s security concerns as IT hardware items could be bugged. A large part of the $7-8 billion of laptops, tablets, and computers imported annually into the country comes from China, which, too, could be monitored.

Imposing licensing curbs could also promote local manufacturing of the items many of which are covered under the Production Linked Incentive scheme.

The Centre, however, decided to postpone implementation by about three months, till October 31, following protests from the industry. The US and the EU, too, took up the concerns of their industry with the Commerce & Industry Ministry.

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