India is planning to file 16 solar cases against the United States under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute. This has been confimed by Nirmala Sitharaman, commerce and industry minister and the cases will be against the US for violating WTO treaties on clean energy.
Sitharaman has said that certain renewable energy programmes in the US are allegedly “inconsistent with WTO provisions.”
One of the important points that the minister suggested is that the US has failed to respect its obligations under the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) 1994, pertaining to subsidies and countervailing measures.
Here it should be noted that India has recently lost a case against the US with the WTO ruling that India’s local content requirements for solar components were in violation of global trade rules. Against the ruling, India has appealed before the WTO against those findings and the Indian government says that it will not bow down to any such pressures.
This can be a major step forward for India as it has been challenging the WTO ruling and mostly it has been seen that WTO bows down to US pressures. Now it is to be seen how WTO reacts to this move from the Indian government.
By Atanu Kumar Das
