New Delhi: In a victory for the country, WTO dispute panel has given a judgement against United States (US) imposing countervailing duty on Indian steel products.
The Panel has ruled that the imposition of CVD by the US is inconsistent with WTO law on subsidies.
India filed its complaint at the WTO in 2012, after Washington imposed duties of nearly 300 per cent on imports of products including steel pipes. According to reports US applied the duties because it felt Indian steel manufacturers were benefiting from unfair subsidies.
United States Department of Comm-erce (US DOC) imposed countervailing duty (CVD) on India’s exports of hot rolled carbon steel flat products. The measures continue to be in force and adversely impact the Indian exports, said commerce ministry.
WTO allows countries to impose countervailing duties if they found that their domestic companies are getting hurt by subsidies granted by a trade partner to its companies.
India challenged the determinations made by the US DOC in various investigations and reviews treating several programmes of India as subsidy whereas, these programmes do not confer any subsidy on the Indian exporters, said the ministry.
“One of the major ruling in favour of India is that the Panel has held that the US law mandating cumulation of non-subsidised imports with subsidised imports while determining injury in a CVD investigation is inconsistent with WTO obligations,” said the commerce ministry.
This ruling potentially questions the validity of a number of other CVD proceedings conducted by the US on products of Indian origin.
