GENEVA: India has launched a complaint against the United States to challenge US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium, a filing published by the World Trade Organisation showed on Wednesday.

Indian officials told Reuters last month that their government would open a WTO dispute if the country’s firms were not granted an exemption.

Trump imposed the tariffs in March, levying 25 per cent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminium. He said they were justified by national security concerns and therefore outside the WTO’s remit.

India, China, Russia, Japan, Turkey and the European Union have all dismissed that claim, regarding the US tariffs as “safeguards” under the WTO rules, entitling them to a combined $3.5 billion in annual compensation.

India’s retaliation claim seeks to recoup a cost of $31 million levied on its aluminium exports and $134m on steel, and it has said it could target US exports of soya oil, palmolein and cashew nuts in its retaliation.

Its latest legal challenge seeks to force the United States to scrap the tariffs entirely. It follows a similar move last month by China, which Washington called “completely baseless”.

Under WTO rules, the United States has 60 days to settle the complaint, after which India could ask the WTO to set up an expert panel to adjudicate.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2018