This may not be in the best interests of multilateralism, but it has paid off in spades for building a domestic handset industry. Smartphones are spearheading Indian electronic exports through production incentives that have drawn in investments from global majors like Apple and Samsung. Value chains are being seeded to supply global demand for electronics from India. The job creation potential of the ‘Made in India’ campaign is immense. India’s opportunistic gamble is delivering, never mind the compensation it could have to pay if it were to lose the WTO appeal. The EU, Taiwan and Japan, which have brought in the complaints, are not big mobile handsets manufacturers. China is not a party to the dispute and cannot claim damages.
Yet, China dominates the narrative around India’s spectacular success with smartphone exports. India began raising import duties on mobile handsets since 2007 to prevent itself from being submerged in devices made in China. Global handset manufacturers began to seek supply chain resilience after China’s shutdown over the pandemic, and India became an obvious choice. Chinese vendors are setting up joint ventures in India to set up an alternative supply chain for mobile handsets. Tariff protection by itself would not have accomplished all of this.
