Washington: Adding another irritant to India-U.S. ties already strained over the Khobragade affair, the U.S. has challenged India's domestic content requirements in Phase II of India's National Solar Mission (NSM) in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Calling India's domestic content requirements as "discriminatory", U.S. Trade Representative (U.S.TR), Michael Froman told reporters that it had sought WTO dispute settlement consultations with India on the issue for the second time in a year.
"These domestic content requirements discriminate against U.S. exports byrequiring solar power developers to use Indian-manufactured equipment instead of U.S. equipment," he said.
"These unfair requirements are against WTO rules, and we are standing up today for the rights of American workers and businesses," Froman said suggesting the U.S. action was also "in support of the rapid global deployment of renewable energy."
"These types of 'localisation' measures not only are an unfair barrier to U.S. exports, but also raise the cost of solar energy, hindering deployment of solar energy around the world, including in India," he said.
Under WTO rules, if the matter is not resolved through consultations within 60 days of the request, the U.S. may ask the WTO to establish a dispute settlement panel, U.S.TR said.
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