{"id":40580,"date":"2024-04-19T03:06:14","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T21:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=40580"},"modified":"2025-04-25T04:06:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T22:36:23","slug":"how-india-us-settled-wto-disputes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/how-india-us-settled-wto-disputes\/","title":{"rendered":"How India-US Settled WTO Disputes?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in News?<\/li>\n<li>How India-US Settled WTO Disputes?<\/li>\n<li>Impact of Settling WTO Disputes on Indian and US Economy<\/li>\n<li>Case of India\u2019s Wheat Subsidies and India\u2019s Take on This<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in News?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>US Trade Representative highlighted that sorting out World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes with India is a win for the agriculture and rural communities in the US.<\/li>\n<li>However, she raised some concerns on India\u2019s wheat subsidies allegedly hurting American farmers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How India-US Settled WTO Disputes?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The discussions on bilateral settlement of pending WTO disputes between both sides began during the <strong>annual Trade Policy Forum (TPF) meeting<\/strong> between both countries in January 2023.\n<ul>\n<li>The TPF aims to resolve trade and investment issues between both nations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Since these outstanding disputes were areas where both countries have had some wins and some losses, <strong>both countries have directed their officials to engage \u2018aggressively\u2019 on the matter<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Thereafter (in June 2023), both sides <strong>decided to close half-a-dozen outstanding disputes<\/strong> at the WTO including the retaliatory tariffs India imposed on imports of some farm products from the US.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The six disputes included<\/strong> &#8211;\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s appeal against the US&#8217;s imposition of tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium products from India;<\/li>\n<li>The US appeal against India\u2019s retaliatory tariffs;<\/li>\n<li>India\u2019s renewable energy subsidies for solar cells and modules under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission;<\/li>\n<li>India\u2019s appeal over similar subsidies for solar cells and solar modules by eight US state governments;<\/li>\n<li>The US appeal against India\u2019s export subsidy programmes;<\/li>\n<li>India&#8217;s imposition of countervailing duties on imports of certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from the US.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The last dispute between the two, which was settled in September 2023, was on<strong> poultry import from Washington <\/strong>as part of which India agreed to cut import duties on some farm items.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Impact of Settling WTO Disputes on Indian and US Economy<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The US was India\u2019s largest trading partner in 2022-23 with bilateral trade rising 7.65% to $128.55 billion.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Settling of disputes means improved access for chickpeas<\/strong>, lentils, almonds, walnuts, and apples benefiting farmers across the country.<\/li>\n<li>India agreeing to reduce tariffs on several US products <strong>means more market access for turkey, duck, blueberries, and cranberries<\/strong> benefiting farmers in the US.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Case of India\u2019s Wheat Subsidies and India\u2019s Take on This<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the USTR, India\u2019s wheat subsidies are distorting prices and making it harder for the USA\u2019s farmers to compete in the Asian market.<\/li>\n<li>In discussions around its wheat subsidies under the MSP programme at the WTO, India has been maintaining that &#8211;\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Its subsidies were well within the range<\/strong> prescribed by the WTO, and<\/li>\n<li>Its food security programmes were <strong>necessary to support vulnerable farmers<\/strong> and feed the poor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q.1. What is the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) between India-US?<\/h3>\n<p>TPF is a platform to resolve trade and investment issues between the two countries. It has five focus groups &#8211; Agriculture, Investment, Innovation and Creativity (IPR), Services and Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers.<\/p>\n<h3>Q.2. What is the bilateral trade between India and the US?<\/h3>\n<p>During 2022-23, the USA was the top destination of Indian exports to the world and third source of India&#8217;s imports from the world. Further, India&#8217;s exports to the USA stood at $ 78.5 billion in 2022-23 and its imports from the USA were $ 50.2 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The discussions on bilateral settlement of pending WTO disputes between India-US began during the annual Trade Policy Forum (TPF) meeting between both countries<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":40581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}