India loses solar case against US at WTO; to appeal

NEW DELHI: India has lost another case against the US at WTO as the body ruled that India's domestic content requirements under its solar power programme were inconsistent with the international norms.

India will now appeal against the ruling of WTO's dispute panel in the next two months, an official said.

Last year, the US dragged India to WTO on country's solar mission plan.

The US alleged that India's programme appears to discriminate against the US solar equipment by requiring solar energy producers to use locally manufactured cells and by offering subsidies to those developers who use domestic equipment.

It also alleged that forced localisation requirements restricted US exports to Indian markets.

On January 11, 2010, India launched its national solar policy -- Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.

The country has an ambitious target of generating 20,000 Mega Watts of solar power by 2022.

The US companies see this target as a great business opportunity for them. Because of this, they want India to remove the clause of local content requirement.

This was the second case where India has lost against the US in WTO. In June this year, India lost a case when the WTO ruled that the Indian ban on import of poultry meat, eggs and live pigs from the US was inconsistent with the global norms.