The WTO announced that on 3 March 2016, India notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) Secretariat that it has initiated a WTO dispute proceeding against the United States regarding measures imposing increased fees on certain applicants for two categories of non-immigrant temporary working visas into the US, and measures relating to numerical commitments for some visas. According to India, the measures appear to be inconsistent with US commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in…
In a significant move to boost foreign direct investment in India’s single brand retail trading[1] (“Single Brand Retail”), the Government of India (“GOI”) in a Press Note released on November 10 announced its liberalized Foreign Direct Investment (“FDI”) policy that eases local sourcing requirements and approval process for FDI in Single Brand Retail, among other major reforms.Unveiling the FDI reforms for as many as 15 sectors and noting India’s improved ranking in World Bank’s…
On April 16, 2015, the Department of State published in the Federal Register a notice [Public Notice: 9095] that outlines the U.S. Government (USG) actions taken to extend certain sanctions relief under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (NDAA) as part of the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA), that halts progress on Iran’s nuclear program and rolls it back in key respects in exchange limited, temporary, and targeted sanctions relief to Iran…
On November 27, 2014, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economy, Trade and Industry jointly announced that the sixth round of negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will be held in India, from December 1 to 5, 2014. In this round of negotiations, the meetings of the Trade Negotiating Committee, in which senior officials will participate, and of working groups on Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Investment, Economic and Technical Cooperation,…
On 13 November 2014, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced that the United States and India reached agreement on a set of measures intended to break the impasse in the work of the WTO to implement the agreements reached last December at the WTO Ministerial in Bali.According to the announcement, the agreement, which will be presented for consideration by the full WTO membership in the near future, consists of two key elements: • U.S. and India…
On October 14, 2014, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a request for written comments [Docket No. USTR–2014–0020] regarding the 2014 Special 301 Out-of-Cycle Review (OCR) of India In the 2014 Special 301 Report, USTR announced that, in order to assess progress on engagement with the Government of India on intellectual property rights (IPR) issues, an OCR would be conducted for India. USTR requests written submissions from…
On 26 May 2014, India notified the WTO’s Committee on Safeguards that it initiated on 22 May 2014 a safeguard investigation on “flexible slabstock polyol”. In the notification, India indicated as follows: All interested parties may make their views known within a period of 30 days from the date of the notice issued (i.e. 22 May 2014 ) by the Director General (Safeguards) to: The Director General (Safeguards) Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan: 2nd Floor,…
On 28 April 2014, India notified the WTO’s Committee on Safeguards that it initiated on 7 April 2014 a safeguard investigation on “not-alloyed ingots of unwrought aluminium” classified under Customs sub-heading nos. 76011010 of Chapter 76 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. The investigation was initiated on 7 April 2014. The period of investigation is 2010-11 to 2013-14 (up to December 2013). The investigation was initiated following the examination of the safeguard petition of the…
On 5 March 2014, India notified the WTO’s Committee on Safeguards that it initiated on 28 February 2014 a safeguard investigation on bare elastomeric filament yarn. The investigation was initiated following the examination of the safeguard petition of the domestic industry (DI) alleging serious injury and threat thereof caused by increased import of the Product under Consideration (PUC) into India. Relevant factors having significant bearing on the present deteriorating domestic industry, as claimed by DI,…