Taiwan takes India to WTO over duties on USB drives

By Kirtika Suneja

NEW DELHI: Chinese Taipei has dragged India to the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement body for imposing anti-dumping duty on pendrives. In May, India had imposed an anti-dumping duty of $ 3.12 per unit and $ 3.06 per units on USB Flash Drives imported from China and Taiwan, respectively. The anti-dumping duty is valid for a period of five years.


“Chinese Taipei notified the WTO Secretariat on 24 September 2015 of a request for consultations with India regarding anti-dumping duties imposed by India on USB flash drives imported from Chinese Taipei,” the WTO said in a release.

USB Flash Drives includes products known in the market parlance by various other names such as pen drive, keychain drives, key drives, USB sticks, flash sticks, jump sticks, USB keys or memory keys.

The request for consultations formally initiates a dispute in the WTO. Consultations give the parties an opportunity to discuss the matter and to find a satisfactory solution without proceeding further with litigation. After 60 days, if consultations have failed to resolve the dispute, the complainant may request adjudication by a panel.

India decided to levy the duty after the domestic industry represented by Moser Baer India Limited had made a case to safeguard the industry from cheap imports in December 2014. The government then took a call on the duty after establishing that the domestic industry has suffered material injury due to dumping of these goods.