Report by the Secretariat (WT/TPR/S/249):III. TRADE POLICIES AND PRACTICES BY MEASURE: (1) Introduction: Page 36, Paragraph 6:
The United States understands that the Government of India's Department of Information Technology draft procurement guidelines for preferential market access imposes purchasing requirements not only on government agencies, but also on central government licensees. If the guidelines are adopted, they would establish a 30 percent preference for the procurement of domestically produced electronics. The April 2011 TRAI recommendations on domestic telecom equipment manufacturing impose similar obligations on licensees and characterize their purchases as government procurement. Could India please clarify how these preference regimes for domestic purchases carried out by private sector enterprises that are licensed by the government qualify as "products purchased for governmental purposes" so as to constitute government procurement under the terms of GATT Article III:8(a)?
Reply: The draft guidelines of Department of Information Technology are under the consideration of the Central Government and policy decision is yet to be taken. Similarly the TRAI recommendations on telecom equipment manufacturing policy are under consideration by the Central Government and the policy has not yet been formulated. It may be premature to comment on the compatibility with GATT Article III.8(a) of a recommendation.
U.S. Follow-Up Question: Please explain each of the steps that is required before the DIT guidelines and a policy based on the TRAI recommendations would become legally enforceable measures.
Reply: In respect of Government's policy formulation there is generally a process of inter ministerial consultations and thereafter all policy proposals are deliberated in the Union Cabinet.
