September 12, 2023

India, US agree to settle trade dispute which affect poultry imports at G20

Against the backdrop of the G20 Summit in New Delhi, India and the United States have agreed to resolve their final outstanding trade dispute lodged with the World Trade Organisation (WTO), relating to restrictions India had imposed on the import of poultry from countries impacted by avian influenza.

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that as part of the agreement between the two countries, India also agreed to reduce import tariffs on some American products such as frozen turkey, frozen duck, fresh blueberries and cranberries, frozen blueberries and cranberries, dried blueberries and cranberries, and processed blueberries and cranberries.

The resolution of this dispute comes on the back of the resolution of six other disputes during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US in June.

The specifics of what the resolution entails have not been made public as yet by either the US or India. India's ministry of commerce and industry has not yet released a statement regarding the resolution of the dispute with the US.

The crux of the last remaining dispute was that the US was of the view — and had approached the WTO in 2012 for arbitration on this — that India's import restrictions on poultry ran afoul of several provisions of the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement).

The US complained that India's measures to ban the import of poultry from the former in order to protect itself against avian flu were not based on a risk assessment and not backed by scientific evidence. Additionally, they were described as excessively trade restrictive and not in conformity with international standards.

"Resolving this last outstanding WTO dispute represents an important milestone in the US-India trade relationship, while reducing tariffs on certain US products enhances crucial market access for American agricultural producers," Tai said during her briefing.

She added: "These announcements, combined with Prime Minister Modi's state visit in June and (US) President (Joe) Biden's trip to New Delhi this week, underscores the strength of our bilateral partnership."

- The Print