India is likely to hold talks with the US to convince it about the compatibility of the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme with global trade rules following Washington’s imposition of countervailing duties on three items exported from India as retaliation against the scheme.
Simultaneously, the commerce and industry ministry is drawing up a roadmap to work on the kind of documentation that needs to be maintained by Indian exporters to deal with anti-subsidy levies such as countervailing duty cases conducted by various countries on domestic products.
The move follows the US’ countervailing investigations on three Indian products- paper file folders, common alloy aluminum sheet, and forged steel fluid end blocks. The European Commission too has conducted a similar probe on certain graphite electrode systems from India. RoDTEP is a WTO compliant scheme where we are not giving any incentive to our exporters but only providing them a level playing field by remitting certain local levies and taxes on inputs. “We are willing to hold discussions on the issue with the US,” said an official.