US, Canada accuse India of underreporting support for lentils, chickpeas; approach WTO

New Delhi: The United States and Canada have moved the World Trade Organization (WTO) accusing India of underreporting its market price support for five pulses.

“Based on US/Canadian calculations, it appears that India has substantially underreported its market price support for chickpeas, pigeon peas, black matpe, mung beans, and lentils,” the US said in a notification on Friday.

On February 12, the US had submitted a counter notification, co-sponsored by Canada, in the WTO on India’s market price support for the five pulses after identifying areas of potential concern with India’s WTO notification of its market price support for these products.


These issues relate to the quantity of production used in market price support calculations, exclusion from India’s notification of information on the total value of production for each category of pulse, issues with currency conversions, and issues regarding the prices used in India’s calculations.

This is the third counter notification by the US regarding another country’s measures. Its previous counter notifications have addressed India’s market price support for cotton, rice and wheat. Australia has submitted a counter notification regarding India’s market price support for sugarcane.

“When calculated according to WTO Agreement on Agriculture methodology, India’s market price support for each of these pulses far exceeded its WTO allowable levels of trade-distorting domestic support,” the US said.

Washington said it expects a robust discussion on how India implements and notifies its policies at the next committee on agriculture meeting at the WTO scheduled for February 26-27.