Friday, October 10, 2014: The European Union has opposed the domestic sourcing rules of India for purchasing telecommunication products by Government departments and thus even seeks for the clarification over what all value addition has to be done in a way to promote them as locally developed products.
However, in December last year, India had to some extent relaxed its policy, by confining it only till government to give preference to domestically manufactured electronic and telecom products and exempting the private sector from it.
EU, at the time of its representation made to the WTO, stated its concern over India following the policy of local content procurement in different Industrial sectors. While, New Delhi adherence to its policy of mandate sourcing of minimum 30 per cent electronic and telecom products by Government Ministries and Departments was as per the WTO norms.
A government official thereafter noted that government had now restricted the preference policy of domestic manufacturing of electronics products only for the government purchases after the WTO officials including US and the EU had complained about it.
Given that India is not a participant in the WTO agreement over government procurement, any policy made by the Government related to the purchases made will not be the part of WTO’s sphere.
India is willing to reduce its dependence over foreign goods. Electronics products rank at second position among overall imports procured by the country after oil imports at around $31 billion in 2013-14.
