NEW DELHI, Jan 17: India is unlikely to take the United States to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against export curbs imposed by Washington on 40 Indian companies and 200 of their subsidiaries after the nuclear tests conducted in May last, official sources said today.Though India had initially toyed with the idea of referring the entities list issue, under which dual-use technology item exports to select Indian companies have been banned, to WTO's dispute settlement mechanism, it was now not inclined to do it due to experts' views that the success rate would be low in fighting the issue at the multi-lateral level.India had, however, decided to register its objections in writing to the US on the issue by tomorrow, the deadline for filing such objections, the sources said.The objection would in general point out that companies blacklisted for exports were in no way related to research in the nuclear field. The Union Cabinet, while clearing the line of India's action in objecting to the list, alsodecided to leave it to individual companies to raise their objections on the issue.But public sector companies which figure in the entities list might not send their objections, the sources said. The entities list banning exports to companies like Bharat Earth Movers, Bharat Electronics, Bharat Heavy Electronics Ltd and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited was published in November last under the Glenn Amendment.The sources said the decision to reconsider the proposal to refer the issue to dispute settlement mechanism was in view of the action being taken by Washington under Article 21 of General Agreement on Trade and Tariff.Article 21 allows a country to take "any action it deems necessary in its security interests" and it was under this that the US had banned exports to the listed firms.Under the Article, US was entitled not to divulge the reasons for its action and even if it does that, it need not give details of the source of information for the ban. The US had stated that the entities list hadbeen published based on information from various sources, they said. India would have to first find out if the case was "justifiable" since no such case had been tried so far. The sources said if India could defend its nuclear tests on sovereign rights, the same could apply under Article 21 to the USMoreover, Washington had not banned export to all Indian companies. Its actions could be justified on the grounds that it had shortlisted these 40 firms and their 200 subsidiaries of the 10,000 Indian entities, they said.Meanwhile, the government has strongly defended the compulsory licensing provisions in the patents amendment ordinance and will present the changed laws to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on January 25 at Geneva.Indian ambassador to WTO S Narayanan will inform the dispute settlement board on the changes next Monday when the board assembles for its monthly meetings, industry ministry officials said. Defending the provisions of licensing under the ordinance, which empowers the governmentto withdraw exclusive marketing rights granted to a company, officials said that it was not a new provision.
