Earlier this month, India delayed the implementation of PC imports by three months in a previous report by TechCrunch.
New Delhi's Deputy IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that they will give a "transition period" to all industry players before the policy takes effect.
Recently, Apple and other US firms decry the tech import curbs. According to them, India should evaluate it again because it might harm the consumers in the long run.
US Trade Groups Protest Against India's Tech Import Restrictions
From Apple to Intel, several trade groups are protesting India to revise its policy curbing PC imports.Joshua Reddekopp from Unsplash
From Apple to Intel, a group of US-based companies protested against India's strict policy on tech imports.
According to Bloomberg, the coalition believes that New Delhi will harm consumers as it dreams to be a center of manufacturing someday.
The biggest tech players in the industry penned a letter to the Biden administration, the US Trade Representative and the Department of Commerce to ask India to reevaluate the implementation.
The tech curb will effectively start on Nov. 1 as part of its plans to limit the import of notable devices including servers, tablets, and laptops.
When asked about the policy, India did not state the reason why it's implementing a change in rules in the first place.
As MacRumors writes in its report, this might be a South Asian country's way to take its local manufacturing to a global scale. This is related to the "Made in India" campaign spearheaded by PM Narendra Modi which is aimed at sharpening tools to develop domestic manufacturing in the tech industry.
While the tech import policy will improve Delhi's tech sector, the US firms see this as a threat that can disrupt trade.
Additionally, Bloomberg News says that this could also slow down the global supply chains and affect not only businesses but also consumers from the US and India.
Aside from Apple, the Semiconductor Industry Association, the Information Technology Industry Council, and the National Association of Manufacturers heavily opposed the amended licensing rules.
The document says that India's position as a trusted partner in global trade might be affected by this ruling.
"This potential will only be achieved if businesses have assurance about a predictable regulatory climate," the signatories said.
If that's the case, then India's relationship with the Cupertino giant and other companies might be put under strain. Seemingly, this could be an aftermath, but we still need the next few months to see the other changes that might be added to the policy.
As Chandrasekhar tweeted, India is preparing to be one of the fastest-growing markets for laptops and other digital products. He added that the government just wanted to ensure that the gadget's hardware and systems are manufactured in the homeland.
With that, the Prime Minister highlighted the country's ambition to reduce its reliance on foreign imports so it could lift its struggling sector in domestic manufacturing.
