WTO rules against US in India steel dispute

In a major relief to the steel industry, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled against the US, which had imposed high duty on imports of certain steel products from India.

According to a commerce ministry statement on Tuesday, "India has achieved a significant victory at the WTO as the appellate body held that the countervailing duty (CVD) measures imposed by the US against certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products are inconsistent with various provisions of the ASCM (Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures)."

The move will definitely help domestic manufacturers, which have been suffering due to inconsistent practices by the US department of commerce, the statement added.

"The implication of this ruling is that the US has to amend its domestic law to be WTO compliant. It has significant trade impact for India as out of the current 10 products on which US has imposed CVD, about 7 products suffer from the same inconsistency."

Washington has imposed duties of about 300 per cent on these product imports. The US had imposed the higher duties on steel imports from India arguing that some domestic companies were being indirectly subsidised by the Indian government.

The case involved US duties imposed because a portion of the iron ore used to produce Indian steel products came from India's top iron ore miner National Mineral Development Corporation, a public sector undertaking that supplies steelmakers such as Tata and Essar.

The WTO also rejected some of the findings of the Geneva-based organisation's dispute settlement panel which were in India's favour. The body has also recommended that the US should modify its norms and bring them in line with the WTO's agreement.