Curbs on PC, tablet, laptop imports: WTO dispute unlikely in near future

India does not expect countries to raise a dispute at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the near future over the curbs on import of laptops, tablets and personal computers. “Disputes don’t come in so early. If anyone finds a problem after implementation, they can raise specific trade concerns in committees like import licensing, market access, and the Council for Trade in Goods. Only if issues are not resolved do they go to disputes. Usually it’s a 3-4 year cycle,” a government official said.

India needs to give a notification to the WTO at the Committee of Import Licensing, though a date for this has not been decided yet. While officials had cited “security risk” to citizens as one of the primary reasons for the import curbs, the official notification did not note any such reason. “This notification does not need a lot of justification really. The specific trade concerns, which will be raised, will be about implementation, not the reason. Import licensing is allowed, according to the agreement, with usual caveats such as it should not be more trade restrictive than necessary, plus some guidelines on how to run such a system,” the official said.

After coming up with the curbs on import of seven electronic items with immediate effect on Thursday, the government provided a three-month transition period to the industry with November 1 as the effective date of implementation. In FY23, India imported $8.8 billion of the seven items brought under the licensing regime, out of which $5.1 billion (58 per cent) worth of products were sourced from China.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), which issued the notification, has clarified that airline passengers travelling back to India can carry such items purchased abroad.

The move comes at a time when India is seeking to establish itself as a major electronics manufacturer. It has, in fact, already rolled out a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for IT hardware to boost domestic manufacturing of such items.

Exemption from the import licensing norm has been provided for up to 20 such items per consignment for the purpose of research and development, testing, benchmarking, evaluation, repair, re-export, and product development.

“Import shall be allowed subject to condition that the imported goods shall be used for the stated purposes only and will not be sold. After the intended purpose, the products would either be destroyed beyond use or re-exported,” the notification said.

If the items are an essential part of capital goods, licensing requirements will also not be applicable.

“Exemption is further provided for re-import of such items repaired abroad,” it added.