India soon to file 16 cases against US at WTO

The Dollar Business Bureau

India will file as many as 16 cases against the US at the World Trade Organization (WTO) as some US programmes in the renewable energy sector are not in accordance with WTO norms, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament on Wednesday.

She said that India believes certain renewable energy programmes of the US at the sub-federal level are inconsistent with WTO provisions, particularly with respect to the obligation under GATT (General Agreement on Tariff and Trade) 1994, Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures and/or TRIMS (Trade-Related Investment Measures) Agreement.

The US had earlier won a case against India at the WTO in February after questioning the rules on the origin of solar cells and solar modules used in the national solar power programme of India. This has prompted India to find out violations of the WTO provisions by the US in its renewable energy sector.

The minister said that India has also appealed before an appellate body of WTO on the findings and recommendations of the dispute settlement board.

India has recently pulled the US to WTO for drastically hiking the H-1B and L-1 visa charges, which may raise the annual visa costs of IT industry in India by four times to touch $400 million. For this, India and the US held a two-day bilateral consultation at WTO from Wednesday.