CAIT asks American President to tell U.S. firms to comply with Indian online regulations

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Feb 24, 2020

The Confederation for All India Traders has urged U.S. President Donald Trump to step in and encourage American businesses to comply with Indian online regulations when operating in the country.

 
CAIT sent a memorandum to Trump on February 23 via the U.S. Ambassador to India, Kenneth Iyan Juster, Indo-Asian News Service reported. The traders’ body has been highly vocal about its concerns over U.S. business’ practices in India, especially Amazon and Walmart through its subsidiary Flipkart. The memorandum was sent ahead of Trump’s first official visit to India starting from February 24 and scheduled to last two days. 
 
"The Confederation of All India Traders today sent a memorandum on current position of e-commerce in India which is greatly vitiated by e-commerce companies, majorly by US based e-commerce companies," CAIT said in a statement, Indo-Asian News Service reported. 

Despite its continued protests against Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart, CAIT also called for increased bilateral trade between India and U.S. in its memorandum. The organisation argues that trade should be increased, but only in a way that benefits Indian traders and respects Indian regulations. 
 
“Various e-commerce companies including U.S.-based e-commerce companies have made it a habit to flout and violate the FDI [foreign direct investment] policy by adopting predatory pricing, deep discounting, exclusive sale of goods, having preferential seller system and influencing the prices and thus creating an uneven level playing field which is most disadvantageous to small businesses of India," CAIT wrote to Trump.

The organisation has repeatedly made this argument to the Indian government and protested against the same across the country.