India successful in WTO case against US local content incentives for renewables

India has been successful in its attack of incentives in several US states that support local content in renewable energy projects, such as in solar parks, or in renewable energy products, such as ethanol.

A panel report has been released on Thursday by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It says in it that it has concluded that certain measures in place in the states of Washington, California, Montana, Connecticut, Michigan, Delaware and Minnesota are inconsistent with the US' obligations under Article III:4 of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) 1994. It is recommending that the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) request the US to bring the said measures into conformity with the rules.

In its written submissions, the US says that most of the measures attacked by India are no longer in legal effect or are due to expire soon. It also says nearly half of the measures “have fallen into general disuse and are essentially moribund”.

India filed the cases against the US in September 2016 sometime after the WTO ruled that India itself discriminated against US solar cells and modules because of a requirement for solar project developers to use locally-made equipment.

The full panel report is available at https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/510r_e.pdf

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