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Walmart Called Indian E-Commerce Rules ‘Regressive’ In Complaint To US Government, Reveals A January Email
Swarajya Staff
Jul 13, 2019, 09:01 AM | Updated 09:01 AM IST
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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”.
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