India lodges WTO appeal in US solar cells dispute

ndia has now asked the WTO’s highest court to review certain aspects of an earlier panel’s finding in its dispute with the US over the use of domestic content requirements in the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) energy scheme ( DS456 ), filing a notice of appeal on 20 April. New Delhi launched the JNNSM six years ago, aiming to promote “ecologically sustainable growth while addressing India’s energy security challenge.” The mission is working toward generating 100,000 mega-watts (MW) of grid-connected solar power capacity by 2022. Under the Mission, the Indian government buys power from solar power developers, at a guaranteed rate for 25 years, and subsequently sells the electricity to downstream distribution utilities which, in turn, resell to consumers. In the Mission’s initial phases, solar power developers were required to use certain types of Indian-made solar cells and modules. The US complained that this requirement was discriminatory and a WTO panel was established to hear the case in May 2014. (See Bridges Weekly, 28 May 2014 ) [Editor's note, Bridges Weekly is ICTSD's flagship publication for trade news] In late February, the panel found the JNNSM’s domestic content requirements (DCRs) constituted trade-related investment measures, thus violating the national...