Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The European Commission said in Brussels that the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled in favor of the European Union in a major case against tariffs imposed by India on major information and communication technology (ICT) products.
Since 2014, India has gradually introduced tariffs of up to 20% on products such as mobile phones, mobile phone components and accessories, handsets, base stations, fixed transformers or electric wires and cables. The European Union considered these fees a direct violation of WTO rules because India is bound by WTO obligations to apply a zero tariff rate on these products. The EU initiated a WTO dispute settlement case in 2019, and the committee issued its final report to all members World Trade Organization on April 17, 2023. Japan and Taiwan filed parallel cases in 2019 following the EU initiative. These two parallel cases cover the same issue (tariffs on ICT products) and almost the same products.
In its decision, the European Commission said that the WTO upheld all EU claims against India and found that India's tariffs of up to 20 percent on some ICT products, such as mobile phones, were not in line with its obligations to the World Trade Organization and is therefore illegal.
The statement indicated that the volume of European Union exports of this technology affected by India's decisions amounts to 600 million euros annually and that the real impact on European companies, which also export from other countries to India, is much higher than the damages inflicted on European companies that export to India directly.
The statement added that the Indian tariffs could not be justified by any of the reasons given by India in this case, which could neither escape from the obligations contained in the WTO laws nor reduce its commitment to zero tariffs, on the products that existed at the time of this commitment and exclude the products. Modern technology that falls under its customs duties laws.
The Commission confirmed that it had rejected India's request to rectify its customs obligations and that these changes would have to be negotiated among WTO members.