NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday strongly backed its policy on the solar
industry after the US called it biased against that country's
manufacturers and threatened to drag New Delhi to the World Trade
Organization to get a larger share of the local solar equipment market.
and threatened to drag New Delhi to the World Trade Organisation to get a larger share of the local solar equipment market.
"Our current policy is WTO compliant," commerce secretary Rajeev Kher
said, denying allegations that US solar companies were not offered a
level playing field during bidding under India's massive programme to
add solar power capacity. "They are going to challenge us, and we will defend ourselves."
The government had made 30% local sourcing of equipment compulsory under the first phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission while in the second stage, it has divided the projects equally between domestic and foreign suppliers.
Kher's reaction came after US Trade Representative Michael Froman said on Monday that India's rules on solar power equipment discriminated against US producers. Washington said it would file a second case at the WTO against the policy. The first case was filed last year. Kher also slammed the US over what he said its own restrictive policies on solar energy.
"We have clear evidence of 13-odd states which follow equally restrictive policies as they challenge against us. We are examining those policies."
The ministry of new and renewable energy, which handles the solar mission, endorsed the stand taken by the commerce department. "We stand by our policy decision and mission guidelines. We would obviously safeguard the interest of our local solar industry," Tarun Kapoor, joint secretary at ministry, said.
"This is a government procurement programme and we have earmarked a small quantity for domestic manufacturers," Kapoor said, referring to the local sourcing requirement. "But there is no demarcation, as half of the amount is still at the disposal of foreign manufacturers and exporters."
The local solar industry questioned the timing of the US action. "With the US solar industry reaching its peak capacity, they will look for ways to dump their additional capacity here in India," said a senior executive of one of the India's largest solar cell manufacturers. However, the US solar industry sought to highlights the benefits for India. "Being solar project developers and builders, we believe that the Indian market should benefit from international scale and technology advances. Therefore, a domestic content requirement would be against the Indian solar industry's growth," said Kushagra Nandan, COO, SunSource Energy.
Source: Economic Times
The government had made 30% local sourcing of equipment compulsory under the first phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission while in the second stage, it has divided the projects equally between domestic and foreign suppliers.
Kher's reaction came after US Trade Representative Michael Froman said on Monday that India's rules on solar power equipment discriminated against US producers. Washington said it would file a second case at the WTO against the policy. The first case was filed last year. Kher also slammed the US over what he said its own restrictive policies on solar energy.
"We have clear evidence of 13-odd states which follow equally restrictive policies as they challenge against us. We are examining those policies."
The ministry of new and renewable energy, which handles the solar mission, endorsed the stand taken by the commerce department. "We stand by our policy decision and mission guidelines. We would obviously safeguard the interest of our local solar industry," Tarun Kapoor, joint secretary at ministry, said.
"This is a government procurement programme and we have earmarked a small quantity for domestic manufacturers," Kapoor said, referring to the local sourcing requirement. "But there is no demarcation, as half of the amount is still at the disposal of foreign manufacturers and exporters."
The local solar industry questioned the timing of the US action. "With the US solar industry reaching its peak capacity, they will look for ways to dump their additional capacity here in India," said a senior executive of one of the India's largest solar cell manufacturers. However, the US solar industry sought to highlights the benefits for India. "Being solar project developers and builders, we believe that the Indian market should benefit from international scale and technology advances. Therefore, a domestic content requirement would be against the Indian solar industry's growth," said Kushagra Nandan, COO, SunSource Energy.
Source: Economic Times
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