Monday, May 26, 2014: India has expressed disappointment over the move, saying that “the United States has chosen to litigate rather than negotiate.”
Hinting that consultations with India over opening up its solar market further had reached no logical conclusion, the United States has now demanded that the World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement board should step in and create a panel to review the dispute. The WTO will examine the spat yet again, a second time to be precise after India decided to maintain its earlier stand that only locally made products be used in its solar industry. Washington argues that India’s stand over the issue impedes competition, hence the spat.
The US has contended that it had tried to amicably resolve the issue with India, however, to no avail. “Not only did these consultations fail to resolve the dispute, but India actually chose to expand the scope of the domestic requirements following initial consultations in 2013,” Washington maintained in a statement to the WTO. The requirements posed by India were inconsistent with WTO norms and did not promote solar power, it added. Meanwhile, India has expressed disappointment over the move, saying that “the United States has chosen to litigate rather than negotiate.” India further said that it had taken part in consultations with the US with an open frame of mind and that it had clearly expressed its willingness to explore all options to settle the dispute amicably.
Earlier, a coalition of US environmentalists had written a letter addressed to US Trade Representative Michael Froman expressing grave concern over the United States plan to haul India to the WTO to open its solar market by urging him to not compromise on the long-term growth of the solar market for limited near-term gain. The US move would in turn entail in hampering the fight against climate change.
