“As each and every previous ruling in this case has shown, India’s domestic content requirements are a clear violation of core WTO rules and today’s victory will give an important boost to United States manufacturing”, NAM said.
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“This report is a clear victory for American solar manufacturers and workers, and another step forward in the fight against climate change”, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement.
“This is an important victory for the USA solar industry and America’s hard-working 209,000-plus solar employees”. The successful initiative, which at its base offers solar power companies government subsidies and long-term contracts, has already fostered the development of more than 8,000 megawatts of solar power in India. The solar dispute arose from a complaint lodged by the U.S. against India in 2013 for violation of global trading rules. The program is a core component of the country’s contribution to the Paris agreement.
It mandates that a solar power producer compulsorily source a certain percentage of solar cells and modules from local manufacturers in order to be able to benefit from the government guarantee to purchase the energy produced. This means the country’s solar cell market remains significantly open to US firms, the group says.
The World Trade Organisation appellate body has upheld an earlier ruling against India’s domestic content requirements for manufacturing solar cells and modules, the WTO said on Friday.
The United States officially launched its WTO case against the buy-local provisions of India’s solar program in 2014.
India appealed the ruling in April. India claimed that, “the DCR measures are laws, regulations or requirements “governing” procurement and that the procurement under the DCR measures is “by governmental agencies”, and that we find that the procurement under the DCR measures is of products purchased “for governmental purposes” and ‘not with a view to commercial resale'”.
India suffered a setback in its efforts to build a domestic solar industry as the World Trade Organization appellate body upheld the ruling of a panel which had stated that the government’s power purchase agreements with solar firms were “inconsistent” with global norms.
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Since India enacted these requirements in 2011, which requires solar power developers to use Indian-manufactured cells and modules, American solar exports to India have fallen by more than 90%, he said.
