India involved in 14 WTO disputes: Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI: India is involved in fourteen World Trade Organization (WTO) disputes at present, all of which are being handled by domestic law firms, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal told Parliament on Friday.

“In one of these disputes, the expertise of the Geneva based international law organization ‘Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL)’, which assists developing countries on WTO law was engaged to guide the domestic law firm in a WTO dispute,” Goyal said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

These disputes pertain to measures concerning measures on non-immigrant visas, the importation of certain agricultural products, solar cells and solar modules, iron and steel products, export related measures, sugar and sugarcane and tariffs on ICT products, among others. India imposing higher duties on 28 American products is the latest to be added to the list.


“In one of these disputes, the expertise of the Geneva based international law organization ‘Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL)’, which assists developing countries on WTO law was engaged to guide the domestic law firm in a WTO dispute. There is no ISDS case pending with Department of Commerce.

The minister said that there is no case of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) is pending with Department of Commerce which defends India’s interests on trade issues in WTO by empanelling law firms through a process of selection committee based on subject expertise in international trade and WTO law. Department of Economic Affairs coordinates ISDS cases and these are individually taken up by relevant line ministries.