India on Friday backtracked on its sudden plan to curb laptop and tablet imports without a license, giving companies three months to secure the permits.
The move came after tech giants Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics Co and HP Inc froze new device imports to the South Asian country following an abrupt order on Thursday.
India’s trade regulator surprised the world’s biggest PC makers when it made licenses mandatory for imports of electronics from small tablets to all-in-one PCs.
Photo: Bloomberg
The sudden licensing imposition caught the industry off-guard, forcing it to begin emergency engagements with New Delhi about how to quickly obtain licenses at a period of heightened consumer interest with India’s Diwali shopping season and back-to-school period approaching.
However, on Friday, India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issued a new order saying companies can import electronic goods such as laptops, tablets and other PCs without a license until Oct. 31.
The new curbs, which require a license to import these devices, will take effect on Nov. 1, the DGFT said in a notification.
New Delhi is simplifying the process of applying for licenses, which can be approved in as little as a day, a senior government official told reporters earlier on Friday.
Officials are also helping companies for the clearance of shipments already in transit to the South Asian nation as the halt threatens to disrupt a multibillion-dollar trade in foreign PCs at a crucial time.
The requirement creates additional compliance headaches for manufacturers in a market that is still largely reliant on overseas shipments.
It is also part of a wider state push to boost local production and create a world-class tech manufacturing industry in India. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is seeking applications for a 170 billion-rupee (US$2.1 billion) financial incentive plan to draw makers of laptops, tablets and other hardware to the world’s most populous nation as companies look to diversify supply chains beyond China.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS