Apple, along with a broad coalition of America’s largest businesses, protested the abrupt way in which India introduced tech import restrictions this month, saying the surprise move will damage the country’s ambitions to become a global manufacturing hub while harming consumers.
Sankalp Phartiyal for Bloomberg News:
In a letter to US officials this week, eight American trade groups comprising the biggest players in technology and manufacturing asked the Department of Commerce, US Trade Representative and government more broadly to urge India to reconsider the policy. The South Asian nation plans to impose a new license requirement for tech imports from Nov. 1, spanning everything from laptops and tablets to servers and components for datacenters.
The move “could significantly disrupt trade, hamper efforts to more closely integrate India into global supply chains, and harm businesses and consumers in both countries,” the trade groups said in a joint memo reviewed by Bloomberg News. The licensing regime was initially implemented with immediate effect earlier this month, before authorities allowed a three-month reprieve to let companies obtain the required licensing.
US industry groups including the Information Technology Industry Council, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Semiconductor Industry Association raised several objections to the planned licensing rules. Any barrier to trade could affect the shipment of US-made computers and electronics into India, which in turn could complicate the ability of businesses in the country, whether American or Indian, to run and expand their operations.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote earlier this month, “Apple is all in on India and we can see the company being granted exemptions or expedited licensing given that the company’s current push to diversify beyond China strongly involves significant manufacturing and assembly investments in India by Apple and their assemblers.”
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