WTO Posts Details of India's WTO Complaint on U.S. CV Duties on Steel Products
The World Trade Organization posted the details of India’s request for consultations with the U.S. concerning countervailing duties imposed by the International Trade Administration on certain steel products. India challenges the original investigation, a sunset a review, and several administrative reviews of the CV order on certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from India (C-533-821), as well as certain provisions of 19 CFR 351 and the Tariff Act of 1930, as inconsistent with U.S. WTO obligations under the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
(The request for consultations formally initiates a dispute in the WTO. Consultations give the parties an opportunity to discuss the matter and to find a satisfactory solution without proceeding further with litigation. After 60 days, if consultations have failed to resolve the dispute, the complainant may request adjudication by a panel.)
India Challenges Application of AFA, Inclusion of New Subsidies in Reviews
Specifically, India challenges, among other things: (1) whether certain subsidies were specific and/or conferred a benefit, as well as the benchmarks the ITA used in calculating CV duties with respect to those subsidies; (2) the ITC’s injury determination(s); (3) the ITA’s application of adverse facts available (AFA); (4) the inclusion of new subsidies in administrative reviews; and (5) the amount of CV duties imposed, which India alleges is not in appropriate amounts and is in excess of the amount of subsidy.
Full text of India's complaint (dated 04/18/12) is available here.
(See ITT's Online Archives 12041301 for summary of WTO report that India requested consultations.)