India engaged with US for amicable solution on duty issue: Commerce Min

India is engaged with the US for an "amicable solution" on the issue of imposing retaliatory customs duties against America's move to hike tariffs on certain steel and aluminium products, Parliament was informed today.

"India has notified imposition of retaliatory tariffs on 29 commodities which would come into effect from August 4. Nevertheless, India remains engaged with the U.S. for an amicable solution of the issue," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry C R Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

He said the US had unilaterally hiked import duties on Indian steel and aluminium imports.

The minister also informed that India has already filed a request for consultations with the US on the imposition of additional duties of 25 per cent on imports of steel and 10 per cent on aluminium, at World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Seeking consultation is the first step of dispute settlement process. If the two nations are not able to reach a mutually agreed solution through consultation, India may request for a WTO dispute settlement panel to review the matter.

In 2017-18, India exported steel and steel products worth USD 1.98 billion to the US out of which exports of USD 0.62 billion fall under the tariff lines on which America has imposed customs duties of 25 per cent, the minister said in a reply to another question.

He also said that as per the report of the investigation conducted by US Department of Commerce, out of 35,927,141 tonnes of steel products imported by the US in 2017, imports from India were only 854,026 tonnes, around 2.4 per cent of total US imports.

On a separate question, the minister said that the WTO had set up a panel to check India's compliance with last year's ruling on solar power programme.

This was set up, he said, on India's request to prove that India has fully complied with the recommendations and rulings of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body.

The US has filed a retaliation request stating that India has not complied fully with the recommendations and panel rulings of the dispute settlement body of the WTO.