US makes good threat on India’s import restrictions

Indian officials had earlier said that the deadline for closing the agenda for the October 16 WTO meeting was October 6, but it transpires that the deadline was really October 3.

The US allowed until the last day possible to let India make a revised offer, and just caught the deadline in filing its request for a panel late that evening.

In its request, the US has used the same wording that it did two months ago when complaining to the WTO that India continues to use a precarious balance of payments (BoP) situation as an excuse to restrict imports when its BoP is no longer threatened.

As reported earlier, India’s foreign reserves of $30 billion make its BoP argument very weak.

The US has said to the WTO that the consultations with India that were begun after the complaint was made have not resulted in a mutually agreeable solution. It has therefore sought the constitution of a panel whose ruling would be legally binding.

The only silver lining for India is that the United States was not joined on Friday in its request by the other complainants. These include the European Union, Japan, Canada, Australia, Norway and Switzerland.

Since the agenda for the October 16 meeting of the dispute settlement body (DSB), when such a panel could be set up, closed on Friday night, these countries cannot now add their request to it.

India can still delay the setting up of the dispute-resolution panel by a month, but a second request will result in its being set up.