India and the United States have agreed to bilaterally resolve six major disputes that the two countries have been fighting at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for the past several years and solutions are likely to be found by the end of 2023 to address all outstanding issues, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.
As per a statement issued by the US Trade Representative's office, India and the US have agreed to resolve six outstanding disputes at the WTO.
“Coinciding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit, the US has reached an agreement with India to resolve several key trade issues, including the termination of six WTO disputes and India’s removal of retaliatory tariffs on certain US products,” it said.
The statement was issued after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Washington on Thursday.
The two leaders welcomed the resolution of six outstanding WTO disputes through mutually agreed solutions, as per a joint statement issued after the meeting of Prime Minister Modi and President Biden. Modi is on his first state visit to the US.
Talking to reporters in New Delhi, union minister Goyal said: "It is a big victory for India and is a mutually beneficial arrangement for both countries," the minister said.
“This agreement is the result of two years of bilateral engagement between the US and India on our economic and trade relationship,” US Trade Representative Katherine Tai tweeted.
Out of the six disputes that the two countries have decided to resolve bilaterally, three have been initiated by India and the other three by the United States.
In 2018, the US imposed 25% and 10% import duties on certain steel and aluminium products, respectively, on grounds of national security. In retaliation, India in June 2019 imposed customs duties on 28 American products, including chickpeas, lentils, almonds, walnuts, apples, boric acid, and diagnostic reagents. Both the countries have separately filed complaints against each other in the WTO on imposition of these duties.
Another long-pending dispute between the two countries is related to India’s ban on imports of poultry meat, eggs, and live pigs from the US. In 2015, an appellate body of the WTO gave a ruling in favour of the US terming the ban “inconsistent” with the international norms.
When asked about the poultry case, Goyal said both sides are discussing it and a solution would be reached by the year-end.
"So, India and the US by the end of this year will have no disputes. All the six major ones have gone," he said.
Goyal noted that this is the first time that the two countries have decided to bilaterally resolve WTO disputes.
He informed that the US Trade Representative is likely to visit New Delhi by the end of this year for the next India-United States Trade Policy Forum (TPF) meeting.