Government rejects WTO arbitration panel, to appeal ICT ruling

The Govt is set to appeal against a ruling by the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement panel, rejecting suggestions of using the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement to resolve the case with the European Union, Japan & Taiwan over import duty of 7.5% to 20% on a host of information & communication technology (ICT) products, including mobile phones.

The Govt's decision will mean that the local industry will not face any adverse impact as the appellate body is non-functional due to the US blocking fresh appointments for years, starting with the Obama administration - a stand that has continued during the Trump and Biden regimes.

On Monday, the dispute panel ruled that the Govt's decision to impose levies on mobile phones & components, base stations, integrated circuits & optical instruments violated the international trading norms & asked India to bring the rules in conformity with the provisions.

Although the action was targeted against Chinese-made products, European, Japanese & Taiwanese companies were hit by the import duty, which was challenged by the EU in 2019, with others joining in. The amount of EU exports of such technology affected by India's violations is up to 600 million euros annually.

The levies kicked in, starting in 2014, as the Govt sought to create a base for domestic manufacturing. The suggestion to use the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement is learnt to have come from the EU but is not acceptable to the Govt.

Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the LatestLaws staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Source Link