Ross to take up e-commerce issues with Prabhu

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Monday said he will discuss the issues concerning FDI in e-commerce with Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu.

The issue assumes significance amid apprehensions that the draft e-commerce policy favours domestic players and does not provide level-playing field for foreign investors, such as Amazon and Walmart.

"Premature to talk about FDI in e-commerce; will discuss issue with Suresh Prabhu later," Ross told reporters after meeting Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The US had earlier criticised India's data localisation norms and draft e-commerce policy terming certain proposals as "most discriminatory and trade-distortive".

The US Trade Representative's 2019 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers had said that recently promulgated data localisation requirements would serve as significant barriers to digital trade between the US and India.

It had argued that these requirements would raise costs for suppliers of data-intensive services by forcing the construction of unnecessary, redundant data centres and prevent local firms from taking advantage of the best global services available.

Ross is here to attend the 11th Trade Winds Business Forum and Mission hosted by the US Department of Commerce.