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In a win for Apple, India loosens planned restrictions on MacBook, iPad imports
Monday, September 25, 2023 3:15 pm

In a win for Apple, HP, and others, India is loosening its planned restrictions on imports of laptops, tablets and other IT hardware, giving manufacturers more time to prepare for potential curbs.

Sankalp Phartiyal for Bloomberg News:

The South Asian country is doing away with a compulsory licensing requirement for tech importers, and will instead only ask such companies to register under its so-called import management system, people familiar with the policy said. The system will start operating on Nov. 1, they said, asking not to be named as the matter isn’t public.

India is seeking to boost local production while trying to ensure sufficient availability of consumer electronics. The federal government last month shocked companies such as Apple and Samsung Electronics Co. as it announced a plan to curb laptop and tablet imports without a suddenly required license. A day later India’s trade regulator delayed the move by three months.

As part of the latest plan… the new rules won’t limit inbound shipments for about six to nine months, the people said.

A quota on imports could gradually kick in as companies begin to manufacture laptops, tablets and other hardware locally. The size of each company’s quota will depend on its local production, import of IT hardware as well as export of such products from India, the people said.

The planned new rules don’t apply to smartphones.

MacDailyNews Take: Giving companies some time to adjust before this plan kicks in should have been in place from its inception.

Apple is all in on India and we can see the company being granted exemptions or expedited licensing given that the company’s current push to diversify beyond China strongly involves significant manufacturing and assembly investments in India by Apple and their assemblers. – MacDailynews, August 8, 2023

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https://macdailynews.com/2023/09/25/in-a-win-for-apple-india-loosens-planned-restrictions-on-macbook-ipad-imports/