According to the website of India Express on May 24th, the Import Licensing Committee of the World Trade Organization (WTO) held a meeting on May 21st. The statement issued by the committee shows that Japan and China have officially raised concerns about India's announced but soon withdrawn laptop import licensing measures in August last year.
The measures taken by India to restrict the import of laptops have also drawn attention from the United States. US Trade Representative Daisy raised this issue at the G20 meeting held in India. Dai Qi urges India to ensure that the end-to-end online systems and related policies currently in operation do not restrict trade development.
India's measures may have already affected laptops and tablets produced by American companies in China, as nearly 90% of Indian imported tablets and personal computers come from China. But other countries targeting India's rapidly growing tablet market are increasingly questioning any similar import restrictions in India.
In particular, the WTO Licensing Committee held a meeting last week to discuss the issue of improving the transparency of member import licensing systems, encouraging members to utilize the WTO's import licensing notification portal website, which was launched on October 31 last year.
The report states that during the meeting, the licensing committee discussed three trade issues related to India. China and Japan have raised concerns about India's measures in the field of personal computers, tablets, and other electronic products; Indonesia, on the other hand, questioned India's import monitoring of viscose short fibers. Chinese Taipei and Thailand have proposed to discuss India's import monitoring of pneumatic tires. Previously, the United States questioned India's practices at the WTO, and in response, India stated that the current system was established to "manage and supervise imports of specific information technology hardware products" to ensure supply chain resilience and address national security concerns.
In December last year, New Delhi responded to this question by stating that the issuance of licenses was "essentially automatic" and that India did not intend to expand the scope of its import management system beyond the latest product list.
India has introduced a system to restrict the import of laptops and tablets, mainly to reduce its dependence on China, which is the largest exporter of such products. However, unlike the mobile phone case, a WTO committee prevented India from raising tariffs to support domestic manufacturing.
Last year, the United States, China, South Korea, and Chinese Taipei raised concerns in another WTO committee regarding India's decision to impose import restrictions on laptops and computers. According to the Press Trust of India, during the meeting of the WTO Market Access Committee, South Korea emphasized that the measures India intends to take do not seem to comply with WTO regulations and may result in unnecessary trade barriers.
