Japan may approach WTO to resolve steel tariff dispute with India

June 9, 2016

Japan may ask the World Trade Organization (WTO) to resolve a dispute related to India’s “safeguard” tariffs on the import of hot-rolled steel. To stop cheap purchases from overseas and flooding the domestic market, which discourages the players due to the supply surplus, India has extended its safeguard imports taxes on some of the steel products including the hot rolled products.

Japan is the second largest producer of steel in the world after China with the annual production of 110 million tones, whereas India ranks fourth with the annual output of 86.5 million tones. Also, Japan is the second largest exporter of steel with the annual exports of 41.3 million tones and India is the one of the major export destination of Japan for steel exports.

Assuming this safeguard as a barrier to trade, Japan will repeatedly urge to the Indian competent authority to ensure the consistency of their measure with the WTO agreements, according to reports of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan in a report.