US calls for duty on Indian wind energy equipment manufacturers
The International Trade Administration (ITA), under the United States department of commerce, has recommended levying a countervailing duty against wind energy equipment manufacturers from India. The recent steps are a stark reminder of the Obama era battle in the World Trade Organization (WTO) between India and the United States to protect the latter’s local renewable energy industry.
With the Joe Biden-led Democrats now in office, the US clean energy lobby appears to be back in action.
A notice by the department of commerce said, “The department of commerce preliminarily determines that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of utility scale wind towers from India. The period of investigation is April 1, 2019, through March 31, 2020.”
In November last year, the US department of commerce published its initiation of the countervailing duty investigation of utility scale wind towers from India.
In February 2021, nine additional new subsidy allegations were filed and the department recommended initiating investigations on eight programmes under question.
