The US challenged India’s local content conditions in its solar policy at the WTO which sent a message to the rest of the world that it would not tolerate “new form of protectionism”, outgoing American Trade Representative Mike Froman said.
This also helped the US to get India to open up its market worth USD 1 billion, Froman said on Thursday in an exit-memo released by the White House on eight years of the outgoing Obama Administration. USTR, he said, filed as many as 24 cases against other countries before the World Trade Organisation. The US has focused in particular on bringing cases which have broad, systemic benefits, he argued.
“Challenging India’s local content requirements was not just about increasing solar panel exports to India, but was intended to send a message to Governments all over the world that the United States would not tolerate this new form of protectionism to exclude our products from their markets, contrary to their WTO commitments,” Froman said.