The World Trade Organisation has backed some key claims made by India against the US
countervailing duties on certain steel products. A WTO dispute settlement panel said yesterday that the United States broke global trade rules by slapping import duties on Indian steel products. The panel said, the US acted wrongly in claiming that some
Indian subsidy programmes have given Tata unfair advantage. The panel called on Washington to bring its measures into conformity with WTO rules.
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.
The United States applied the duties because it felt Indian steel manufacturers were benefitting from unfair subsidies.
WTO members are allowed to impose so-called countervailing duties – a special import tax – if they believe that their domestic manufacturers are being hurt by subsidies granted by a trade partner to its companies.