Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Shipping embedded boards from the US to India

I sent an enquiry mail to one of the embedded board manufacturers that make "way small" boards (http://www.gumstix.com/) . I wanted to order one of their basic boards and to my surprise i received a mail from telling that they *dont* ship to India currently. The explanation given was that India was listed in "Tier 3" (not 1 not 2, but 3 !!!) by the US Commerce department. They also mentioned that the process to put India in their shipping list was in progress.

Now what is amazing to me is that India is listed in the "Tier 3". Why? Isnt that a barrier to trade?
Now, is that an export control regulation on India? Guess what!!! Googling with "export controls + tier 3 + india" shows India listed in tier 3 along with Pakistan, Russia, Middle East etc. Guess these restrictions came about after India had their 'peaceful' nuclear explosion some years back. Subsequently the US put an embargo banning the export of "Dual Use" technology.
Huh!! All with with my Dad/FIL/MIL being Scientists working in the Dept of Atomic Energy. :))

But then i guess US is working towards removing that embargo and allowing exports of arms and "Dual use" technology.

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