According to US Trade Representative Michael Froman, the World Trade Organisation panel rejected India's challenges to key aspects of US countervailing duty laws and regulations, and most of the hundreds of challenges brought by India against case-specific Department of Commerce determinations in a countervailing duty proceeding covering hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from the country.
"This dispute is another example of the Administration's commitment to fight for American workers and industry by taking strong trade remedy measures against unfair subsidies and defending those actions when challenged by our trading partners," US Trade Representative Froman said.
In its order, the WTO panel upheld key US countervailing duty laws and regulations regarding the application of "facts available" and the calculation of benefit.
The panel also rejected most of the challenges brought by India against Commerce's case-specific determinations, including challenges to over 300 instances of the use of "facts available", challenges to Commerce's benchmark calculations and specificity determinations, findings that two Indian entities constituted "public bodies" and were thus subject to WTO subsidy disciplines and Commerce's inclusion of new subsidy programmes in countervailing duty review proceedings, Froman said.
In this dispute, India alleged that several US laws and regulations governing countervailing duty investigations, as well as specific countervailing duty measures imposed on imports of certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from India, were inconsistent with provisions of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measure (SCM) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994.
The WTO panel rejected most of India's claims against US laws and regulations "as such" under the SCM Agreement, Froman said.