RICARDO PALMA UNIVERSITY

RESEARCH WORK

Course: Custom valuation

Professor: Minchola Guardia, Renzo Daniel

Student: Caceres Bugarin, Alisson Stephanie

Semester: 2023-II

Lima-Perú
EU WINS CASE AT WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION OVER TARIFFS IMPOSED
BY INDIA ON INFORMATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RELATED
PRODUCTS

On April 17, 2023, the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled in favor of the EU in

a major case challenging India’s tariff on key products related to information and

communication technologies (ICT).

CONTEXT

Since 2014, India has gradually introduced customs duties of up to 20% on

products such as components, mobile phones and mobile phone accessories,

landline phones, base stations, static converters or power cables and cables. The EU

considered these duties to be in direct violation of WTO rules as India is required

under its WTO commitments to apply a zero-duty rate on such products.

The EU initiated the dispute settlement procedure in the WTO in 2019, the Panel

sent its final report to all WTO members on April 17, 2023.
HOW WAS IT RESOLVED?

The WTO upheld all EU claims against India and found that tariffs of up to 20%

imposed by India on certain ICT products, such as mobile phones, were not in line

with its WTO commitments and therefore They were illegal. The amount of EU

exports of these technologies affected by violations by India amounts to EUR 600

million annually. While this is already significant, the real impact on European

companies, which also export from other countries to India, is considerably greater.

The Panel confirmed that, in this case, India's tariffs could not be justified for any

of the reasons given by India in this case. India could not invoke the Information

Technology Agreement (ITA) to circumvent its WTO commitments, nor could it limit

its duty-free commitment to products that existed at the time of this commitment,

excluding products more recent technological devices belonging to the same tariff

line. The Panel also confirmed that no error had been made in determining India's

tariff commitments, including when the tariff line nomenclatures were updated, and

declined to consider India's request to rectify its tariff commitments. These changes

would have to be negotiated among WTO members.