TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Apr25/12)
15 April 2025
Third World Network

WTO: India requests safeguard consultations with US on steel & aluminium
Published in SUNS #10201 dated 15 April 2025

Geneva, 14 Apr (D. Ravi Kanth) — India has requested the United States to enter into consultations under the Agreement on Safeguards at the World Trade Organization over the duties imposed by the Trump administration on steel and aluminium products in February 2025, a development that has come in the wake of India’s ongoing bilateral free trade agreement negotiations with Washington, said people familiar with India’s request.

In its request filed under Article 12.3 of the Agreement on Safeguards on 10 April, India argued that the US on 10 February 2025 “revised the safeguard measures on imports of steel and aluminium articles, effective from 12 March 2025, and with an unlimited duration.”

India argued that the US characterization of the duties to the tune of 25% on steel and 10% on  aluminium as “security measures” is flawed as “they are in essence safeguard measures.”

India said the US “failed to notify the WTO Committee on Safeguards under Article 12.1( c) of the Agreement on Safeguards (AoS) on taking a decision to apply safeguard measures.”

The US had earlier imposed a 25% tariff on steel and 10% on aluminium in 2018 under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 on national security and safeguard considerations.

Significantly, a WTO dispute panel ruled against the US duties on both grounds in late 2022 but Washington appealed the issue before the Appellate Body, knowing full well that it decidedly paralyzed the Appellate Body since December 2019, said a legal analyst who asked not to be quoted.

In its request for consultations, India argued that it is “an affected Member with significant export interest to the United States in the products concerned.”

As a first step, India called on Washington to enter into consultations “pursuant to Article 12.3, AoS to exchange views on the measure and to meet the objectives set out in Article 8.1, AoS.”

India said that it “reserves all its rights under the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization and its Annexes, including the Agreement on Safeguards.”

Last month, Canada initiated dispute settlement proceedings against the US over the same issue and it remains to be seen whether Ottawa will call for the establishment of a dispute panel, the analyst said. +