India, US Contesting Seven Disputes Under WTO: Commerce Ministry

New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) India and the US are contesting seven disputes at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in areas including poultry, steel and export incentives, Parliament was informed Monday.

These seven cases "pertain to poultry and poultry products from the US, countervailing duties against India's export of steel products, measures against import of solar cells and modules under National Solar Mission," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry C R Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

The other cases include the US's Sub-Federal Renewable Energy Programmes, United States' measures concerning non-immigrant visas, India's export promotion schemes and United States' tariff hike on steel and aluminium products, he said.

The US has challenged certain export promotion schemes of India and "there will be no effect to the GST refunds provided to the exporters under the GST Act as GST issues have no linkage with this dispute," he added.

India considers that it does not provide any WTO non-compliant subsidies for exports, he added.

Replying to a separate question, the minister said that India's trade deficit with Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) members stood at USD 105 billion in 2017-18.

RCEP mega trade pact aims to cover goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights.

The bloc comprises 10 Asean members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and their six FTA partners - India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

To another question, Chaudhary replied that the ministry has received proposal from Maharashtra for handing over some pieces of salt department lands at Mumbai to Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai for public purposes.

"One proposal from the Revenue and Forests Department, Government of Maharashtra has been received regarding transfer of 80.98 acres of salt pan land ... to Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) for dumping of refuse, solid waste treatment plant and allied processes," he said.

The land, he said, requested for transfer by Maharashtra is under litigation with regard to ownership issue.

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