The US is not yet willing to withdraw its $450-million retaliation case against India at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for restricting import of poultry from the country. This is despite New Delhi changing its import rules as per Washington’s wishes early this year and imports from the country starting in April.

“The retaliation panel, which was to give its verdict on the dispute on July 20, has been asked by the US to hold its decision for another three months. The US is keeping India on tenterhooks despite all its demands being met,” a government official told BusinessLine .

Washington might be trying to ensure that consignments come in from the country worth huge commercial value before it withdraws the retaliation proposal, a Delhi-based trade economist said.

“Till now, only small consignments have been imported from the US. But it is a factor of demand and import rules no longer have a role to play. The US should not keep the sword hanging on India any longer,” he said.

India had asked the US to withdraw its retaliation case against it at the WTO in February after it made the final set of changes in its sanitary and phytosanitary requirements for imports to bring them in line with what the country had demanded.

In April, when the US sent its first consignment of poultry to India and it was cleared by the customs, New Delhi again urged Washington to withdraw the case. However, it asked the WTO to postpone the date of verdict of the retaliatory panel to July 20 and told India that it would use the time period to ensure that everything went about smoothly.

“We are very sure that our rules are totally in line with the WTO ruling on the matter. That is why we requested the WTO to set up a compliance panel to verify our claim that everything is in order. Unfortunately, the retaliatory panel, which just calculates the retaliation duties to be imposed and does not go into the merit of the case, gives its verdict earlier than the compliance panel,” the official said. So, in case the US does not withdraw the case and the retaliatory panel is allowed to give its pronouncement on the retaliation amount, India will have put up with it till the compliance panel give its verdict. India had lost a case at the WTO in 2015 filed by the US against restrictive avian influenza measures which prevented American poultry products to enter the Indian market. The US had said that the restrictions were not based on scientific validation.

Following the WTO ruling in favour of the US, India made two rounds of changes in its rules on bird flu to bring it in line with the Dispute Settlement Body’s ruling, but the US was not satisfied and filed a case with the retaliatory panel seeking compensation.

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