E-commerce behemoths Amazon and Flipkart have agreed to display the country of origin against the products being sold on their platform a day after the government had called for a meeting with online retailers over the issue.
“Both the platforms have agreed to compel merchants to start prominently displaying ‘country of origin’ for all goods sold online in India,” a Bloomberg report said.
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has also joined the list of other companies that have agreed to mention the origin of the products against the listed products.
However, it’s not clear when the labeling will kick off because the e-commerce companies have asked for more time to incorporate the new requirement into their technology, the report added.
The move is a part of India’s policy measures targeting Chinese goods over a border standoff between India and China. The two countries have been locked in a dispute over the line of actual control (LAC) in a few sectors in Ladakh.
Entrackr’s queries sent to Amazon, Flipkart, and Jio did not elicit any immediate response. We will update the post as and when they respond.
The government had made it mandatory for sellers to disclose the ‘country of origin’ on the products they list on its e-procurement platform Government e-Marketplace or GeM.
According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the sellers on the platform are being warned continuously that their products shall be removed from GeM if they fail to update the same. Moreover, the ‘Make in India’ filter has also been enabled on the portal.
Even though anti-China sentiment has been on the rise in India for the last two weeks, the big question is would it be easy for the country to boycott Chinese goods as it depends heavily on cheap Chinese products. Also, it will take a long time to set up local supply chains and the fact that there are few alternatives for certain kinds of imports.
