India to stand against global e-commerce regulations at upcoming G20 meet

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jun 5, 2019

The Indian government will continue to stand against talks on the creation of global e-commerce regulations at the upcoming G20 summit that will take place in Japan from June 8 to 9.

India’s new Minister of Commerce and Industry following the recent elections, Piyush Goyal, will travel to Japan to take part in the G20 summit over the weekend, ET Bureau reported. This will be Goyal’s first international engagement in the role and he is tasked with maintaining India’s stance against talks on global e-commerce guidelines.
 
A total of 77 countries have agreed to hold discussions on a possible set of global guidelines for online trade. India is the only country apart from South Africa to have opposed the creation of such regulations. “We have opposed [talks on] e-commerce and digital trade till now and will maintain that stance at the G20 meet,” an official source told ET Bureau.

One reason for both India and South Africa’s criticism of global e-commerce talks is over the current practice of not imposing customs duty on electronic transmissions. Indian authorities see this a loss of potential revenue.

The Indian government introduced new regulations surrounding foreign direct investment in e-commerce businesses in February which garnered some support from domestic businesses such as Paytm and criticism from many of the international businesses affected. The US government has also criticised India’s new FDI norms and its data localisation norms but the policies have been criticised from within India for the opposite reason of being too centred on foreign investment to the detriment of domestic businesses.