India wins steel import tussle with US at WTO
WTO Appellate body had ruled against US imposing countervailing duty
New Delhi: In a victory for the country, the World Trade organisation (WTO) has ruled against US imposing countervailing duty (CVD) on some steel imports from India.The US Department of Commerce (US DOC) imposed countervailing duty on India’s exports of hot rolled carbon steel flat products. India had challenged US DOC treating several programmes of India as subsidy “whereas, these programmes do not confer any subsidy on the Indian exporters.”
WTO Appellate body held that the CVD measures imposed by the United States against India are inconsistent with various provisions of the agreement on subsidies and countervailing measures (ASCM).“It will definitely help the domestic manufacturers who had been suffering on account of inconsistent practices by the US Department of Commerce,” said commerce ministry.
It said that WTO Appellate body has emphatically endorsed India’s position that a Public Sector Underta-king (PSU) shall be treated as a “public body” only when they possess governmental authority and discharge governmental functions.“This ruling would provide significant relief to exporters who buy raw materials from PSUs such as Steel Auth-ority of India (SAIL) or the National Mineral Develpment Corporation (NMDC),” said commerce ministry.
The Appellate body also agreed with India that the United States’ benefit methodology wh-ile calculating the benefit in the case of sale of iron ore by NMDC is unfounded.
“India will actively monitor the implementation of this ruling by the United States in order to ensure that the interests of Indian exporters are fully protected,” the commerce ministry informed.