WTO Talks: India And Five Other Countries Grill US On Import Tariffs, US Simply Cites National Security

India, Canada and Mexico held dispute settlement consultations with the United States (US) on the issue of latter imposing additional duties of 25 per cent and 10 per cent on steel and aluminium imports respectively. Other countries including China, Norway and the European Union had also held similar talks with the US earlier this month. These consultations are held under aegis of World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva.

Reports say that the US repeatedly stuck to it's stand that the importer was not required to "provide any reason" for the sudden imposition of import duties and that they remain "sovereign determinations" under a provision of the 1994 GATT Agreement.

The complainant countries, on the other hand, are learnt to have disagreed with the US. They maintained that the newly proposed duties by the US President Donald Trump are nothing but disguised import safeguards to protect local industry, they also pointed out that the US Department of Defence had itself stated that there was no threat to the US national security due to steel and aluminium imports.

Another point of contention during the consultations held at Geneva saw the complainant countries seeking clarification on why the US exempted specific countries such as Australia, Brazil, South Korea and Argentina from the additional import duties. Further, they also cited the US Department Of Commerce's recommendation that the duties be pegged at 21 per cent and 7 per cent instead of 25 per cent and 10 per cent being proposed now.

Since the consultations appear to have yielded no satisfactory answers the six countries may soon request the WTO to set up a disputes settlement panel that might rule against the US measures.

The US however continues to stick to it's stand. On Thursday (19 July) Switzerland was reportedly told by the US "the tariffs imposed pursuant to Section 232 are issues of national security not susceptible to review or capable of resolution by WTO dispute settlement, and the consultation provision in the Agreement on Safeguards is not applicable."