US takes India back to WTO in solar power dispute
Renewable energy has become a hot area of trade friction
FILE PHOTO: Workers carry a damaged photovoltaic solar panel at the Gujarat solar park under construction in Charanka village in the western Indian state of Gujarat, India April 14, 2012. PHOTO: REUTERS
GENEVA:
India has failed to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling on solar power, the United States will tell the WTO's dispute settlement body (DSB) next month, triggering a fresh round of litigation, according to an agenda issued on Wednesday.
Renewable energy has become a hot area of trade friction as major economies compete to dominate a sector that is expected to thrive as reliance on coal and oil dwindles. India unveiled its national solar programme in 2011, seeking to ease chronic energy shortages in Asia's third-largest economy without creating pollution.
Balochistan to install 30,000 solar-run tube wells
But the United States complained to the WTO in 2013, saying the programme was discriminatory and US solar exports to India had fallen by 90 per cent from 2011. The United States won the case last year, when WTO appeals judges ruled India had broken the trade rules by requiring solar power developers to use Indian-made cells and modules.
Such "local content" requirements are banned because they discriminate in favour of domestic firms and against foreign competitors. Under an agreement with the United States, India had until December 14 to comply with the ruling and it told the DSB last week that it had done so.
Sindh govt making arrangements to install solar panels at 4,000 schools
"Indian authorities have held extensive internal stakeholder consultations since the adoption of the rulings and recommendations of the DSB to fully comply with them," India said in its statement to the DSB. "Accordingly, in compliance with the findings and recommendations of the DSB in this dispute, India has ceased to impose any measures as found inconsistent in the DSB’s findings and recommendations."
But an agenda for the DSB's next meeting on January 12 showed the United States plans to raise the dispute again, citing WTO rules on non-compliance with trade rulings. If India is found not to have complied, Washington could ask the WTO for permission to impose trade sanctions on India. But the WTO dispute system is struggling to process a large number of highly complex disputes, so the legal process is likely to continue for a year or more.
India has failed to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling on solar power, the United States will tell the WTO's dispute settlement body (DSB) next month, triggering a fresh round of litigation, according to an agenda issued on Wednesday.
Renewable energy has become a hot area of trade friction as major economies compete to dominate a sector that is expected to thrive as reliance on coal and oil dwindles. India unveiled its national solar programme in 2011, seeking to ease chronic energy shortages in Asia's third-largest economy without creating pollution.
Balochistan to install 30,000 solar-run tube wells
But the United States complained to the WTO in 2013, saying the programme was discriminatory and US solar exports to India had fallen by 90 per cent from 2011. The United States won the case last year, when WTO appeals judges ruled India had broken the trade rules by requiring solar power developers to use Indian-made cells and modules.
Such "local content" requirements are banned because they discriminate in favour of domestic firms and against foreign competitors. Under an agreement with the United States, India had until December 14 to comply with the ruling and it told the DSB last week that it had done so.
Sindh govt making arrangements to install solar panels at 4,000 schools
"Indian authorities have held extensive internal stakeholder consultations since the adoption of the rulings and recommendations of the DSB to fully comply with them," India said in its statement to the DSB. "Accordingly, in compliance with the findings and recommendations of the DSB in this dispute, India has ceased to impose any measures as found inconsistent in the DSB’s findings and recommendations."
But an agenda for the DSB's next meeting on January 12 showed the United States plans to raise the dispute again, citing WTO rules on non-compliance with trade rulings. If India is found not to have complied, Washington could ask the WTO for permission to impose trade sanctions on India. But the WTO dispute system is struggling to process a large number of highly complex disputes, so the legal process is likely to continue for a year or more.