India has said Apple must meet a rule obliging foreign retailers to sell at least 30 percent locally-sourced goods if it wishes to open stores in the country, a senior government official told Reuters.
A change in legislation last year exempted foreign retailers selling high-tech goods from the rule, which states 30 percent of the value of goods sold in the store should be made in India.
However, Apple's products were not considered to be in this category, said the official, who has direct knowledge of the matter, according to Reuters.
This is pure harassment of Apple most likely at the behest of local retailers and manufacturers...
...and it will only hurt India's consumers.
-RW
---India has said Apple must meet a rule obliging foreign retailers to sell at least 30 percent locally-sourced goods if it wishes to open stores in the country. ---
ReplyDeleteAh, the usual protectionist scheme imposed by most 3rd world governments. One of the reasons why there was very little foreign investment in Mexico for decades after WWII was because of a terribly stupid regulation that mandated that any investment from a foreign company had to be matched by an equal investment from a Mexican company or venture capital company registered in Mexico with the added restriction that this Mexican company had to be owned by Mexican nationals exclusively. You couldn't get more Trumpian than that. Only after the rules were changed after the end of the 80s did Mexico see investment explode.
I agree that such protectionism is generally a problem but there are other factors involved. China has domestic content laws and local partnership requirements and it hasn't apparently stopped much.
DeleteAnd France is going after google: http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/france-raids-google-headquarters/2016/05/25/id/730711/
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