U.S. Committed To See Trade With India Achieves Full Potential

By siliconindia | Tuesday, 11 February 2014, 12:35 Hrs

"This kind of discrimination is against WTO rules, and we are determined to stand up for US workers and businesses," he said, adding that the action is also consistent with the Administration's strong support for the rapid development of renewable energy around the world, including in India.

"Domestic content requirements detract from successful cooperation on clean energy and actually impede India's deployment of solar energy by raising its cost," Froman said.

Meanwhile, senior USTR officials said that given the increasing differences between India and the U.S. on a series of economic issues, it should not be seen that the two countries are headed towards a trade war.

"No (India and U.S. are not headed towards a trade war)," the official said in response to a question.

"You know, in a mature trading relationship such as we have with India, there are going to be issues that arise. And what this administration is committed to do is to raise them directly and frankly. We have been in discussions with India since this solar program was announced in 2010. So that's going on four years now that we have been in consultations, raising our concerns with the government of India in a number of different ways," the official said.

"As indicated, for more than a year now, or for about a year, we have also made clear our concern raises specific WTO concerns. So, we are using the channels that we and India have agreed to, as we do with other countries. And this is a normal part of a mature and significant trading relationship, as we have with India," the official said.

Source: PTI