India tells WTO it is considering counter duties on US
India informed the global trade body that it believed the US duties amounted to so-called safeguard measures, allowing it to take counter measures.
The Indian flag. Picture: Pixabay
GENEVA - India is considering imposing import duties on some US products to counter President Donald Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminium, it said in a document submitted to the World Trade Organization.
In the document, dated 12 May, India says it is responding after Trump in March hiked tariffs on trading partners and announced sector-specific levies on steel, aluminium and cars.
That marked an extension of the tariffs first imposed in 2018 during Trump's first stint in the White House.
India informed the global trade body that it believed the US duties amounted to so-called safeguard measures, allowing it to take counter measures.
"The proposed suspension of concessions or other obligations takes the form of an increase in tariffs on selected products originating in the United States," the document said.
It did not say what kinds of products might be hit with tariffs.
India, one of the world's largest crude steel producers, said in the document that the US measures would affect $7.6 billion worth of goods originating in India, with $1.91 billion in duties expected to be collected.
"Accordingly, India's proposed suspension of concessions would result in an equivalent amount of duty collected from products originating in the United States," it said.
This was the same argument presented by India and other countries to justify retaliatory duties against the United States over the tariffs introduced during Trump's first term.
At the time, Washington rejected that its tariffs could be seen as safeguard measures and initiated several disputes before the WTO against the retaliatory tariffs.
Before a ruling could be reached in the India case, the two sides reached a mutually agreed solution in 2023.
But in the cases brought against China and Turkey, WTO expert panels backed the US claim its tariffs did not amount to safeguard measures.
Those findings were appealed, but the WTO's appeals tribunal - also known as the supreme court of world trade - has been frozen since late 2019 after the United States blocked the appointment of new judges and demanded an overhaul, leaving those appeals stranded.