EU wins WTO case on India’s tariffs on ICT-related products

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled in favour of the EU in a landmark case challenging India’s tariffs on key information and communications technology (ICT) products. In a panel decision, the WTO upheld all of the EU’s claims against India and found that India’s tariffs of up to 20 percent on certain ICT products, such as mobile phones, violated its WTO obligations and were therefore illegal. Exports of these technologies from the EU affected by India’s violation amount to €600 million per year. While this is already significant, the real impact on European companies that also export to India from other countries is much greater.

The panel confirmed that India’s tariffs could not be justified by any of the reasons India brought forward in this case. India could not invoke the Information and Technology Agreement (ITA) to escape the commitments made in its WTO schedule, nor limit its zero-duty commitment to products that existed at the time of this commitment and exclude more recent technological products falling under the same tariff line. The panel also confirmed that no mistake was committed when determining India’s tariff commitments, including when the tariff lines nomenclatures were updated, and refused to examine India’s request to rectify its tariff commitments. Such changes would need to be negotiated among WTO Members.

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Background

India has since 2014 gradually introduced customs duties of up to 20% on products such as mobile phones, mobile phone components and accessories, line telephone handsets, base stations, static converters or electric wires and cables. The EU considered that these duties were in direct breach of WTO rules since India is obliged under its WTO commitments to apply a zero-duty rate to such products.

The EU initiated this WTO dispute settlement case in 2019.The panel issued its final report to all WTO Members on 17 April 2023.

Japan and Taiwan filed parallel cases (DS584/DS588) in 2019 following EU’s initiative. These two parallel cases cover the same issue (tariffs on ICT products) and almost the same products. The WTO is expected to rule on these cases today as well.

More information

European Commission