WTO DSB adopts Appellate Body report favouring India

 Sachin Manawaria | The Dollar Business

Hot Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products are usually used in the manufacture of durable products such as automobiles, heavy machinery, pipes, and construction products.

  The World Trade Organisations’ Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) has adopted the Appellate Body (AB) report in the case “US – Countervailing measures on certain hot-rolled steel flat products from India”, effectively forcing USA to accept the ruling which largely favoured India in the dispute over imposition of countervailing duty (CVD) on India’s export of Hot Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products to USA. India has welcomed the move saying that this dispute is a significant milestone for India. It said that a number of countervailing duty measures imposed by USA over the years have been found to be inconsistent with the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) Agreement, and the ruling could have a significant trade impact. India has also welcomed the AB's findings that an organisation cannot be termed as a public body merely because it was owned by the government. The adoption of the Appellate Body report is expected to lead to an increase in the exports of India’s hot rolled carbon steel flat products to USA, and create more difficulties for the American steel industry which is competing with growing steel imports estimated at around 30% of total supply in USA. USA has expressed its disappointment and said that the dispute raised some procedural and systemic issues in the functioning of the dispute settlement mechanism. It said that India's appeal of the entirety of the Panel's findings had led to an exacerbation of the AB workload and made it difficult for the AB to comply with the 90-day deadline.    

This article was published on December 23, 2014.