Walmart Called Indian E-Commerce Rules ‘Regressive’ In Complaint To US Government, Reveals A January Email

The United States (US) based retail giant, Walmart in January 2019 had knocked on the doors of the US Government to raise concerns about India's new investment rules for e-commerce being regressive, holding the potential to hurt trade ties, reports The Hindu.

“It came as a total surprise. This is a major change and a regressive policy shift,” Walmart's Senior Director for Global Government Affairs Sarah Thorn had written to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in an email on 7 January.

The issue gains significance as the differences over the e-commerce trade rules have grown to become a matter of confrontation in the trade talks and ties between the two nations. Walmart's concern gained out of its $16 billion investment into Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart, which has been its biggest ever overseas acquisition.

The lobbying by Walmart though had not yielded any fruitful results as the new rules on e-commerce had been implemented in India from 1 February 2019 itself.

Meanwhile, after the news of Walmart approaching the US government came open, the retail major has issued a statement saying, it regularly offers input to the US and Indian governments on policy issues and this was a “past issue and Walmart and Flipkart are looking ahead”.