US, India end trade disputes at WTO, call it a win-win
India and the US agreed to end 6 trade disputes; New Delhi will remove retaliatory customs duties on certain American products such as almonds, walnuts, and apples
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New Delhi The decision of the US and India to end six major trade disputes at WTO is a "big victory" and will be mutually beneficial for both countries, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.
He said resumption of talks at the Trade Policy Forum has started yielding significant results. India and the US have agreed to end six trade disputes at the World Trade Organization while New Delhi will also remove retaliatory customs duties on certain American products such as almonds, walnuts, and apples.
A joint statement issued after the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Washington said the two leaders welcomed the resolution of six outstanding WTO disputes through mutually agreed solutions. "It is a big victory for India and is a mutually beneficial arrangement for both countries," Goyal told reporters here.
He said, now there are no pending India-US disputes at WTO. On the poultry case, he said both sides are discussing it and will find a solution by end of this year. "So, India and the US by the end of this year will have no disputes. All the six major ones have gone," the minister said adding "for the first time bilaterally we are ending the disputes."
In 2015, India lost a long-pending dispute over poultry imports from the US at WTO's dispute settlement body. India had 12 months to comply with the WTO order. The US had sought trade sanctions against India in this case. Goyal informed the reporters that US Trade Representative Katherine Tai will be coming to India by end of this year for next TPF meet. "Before that, we will be in a position to solve that (poultry case) also," he added.
Talking about the six trade disputes, he said it's a "package deal". The six disputes include three initiated by India and as many by the US. In 2018, the US imposed 25 per cent and 10 per cent import duties on certain steel and aluminium products, respectively, on grounds of national security. In retaliation, India in June 2019 imposed customs duties on 28 American products, including chickpeas, lentils, almonds, walnuts, apples, boric acid, and diagnostic reagents.
India had also filed a complaint against the US in WTO on imposing these duties. On the steel and aluminium case, there were requests by Indian players to exclude certain products from the high duty list.
On this, the US has given "us an assurance that at least 70 per cent of all such requests of steel, and 80 per cent of all such requests for aluminium applications for products originating in India will be excluded from the additional process of Section 232 (of a US law)".
