High duty rates on alcohol - USA files complaint against India in WTO

By Vijay Kumar

USA on Friday filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization (WTO) against India, alleging that India’s duties on alcoholic beverages and other imports violated global trade rules.

“India is an important export market for US products and the United States and Indiahave successfully worked on a number of important trade issues. However, we believe the layers of customs duties India applies to US products, in particular to wine and distilled spirits, are not in line with its WTO commitments,” said US trade representative Susan Schwab in a statement.

“We are disappointed that WTO consultations failed to resolve our concern with the duties and that we must resort to a WTO panel. The United States will continue to work towards a resolution of this issue with India but we must ensure a level-playing field for US products around the world,” she added.

US officials said India, in addition to its basic customs duties, imposes an additional duty of 20-75% on the value of imports of beer and wine and 25-50% on imports of distilled spirits. Moreover, India applies an “extra additional duty” on these imports that puts the total duties in a range of as much as 150% to 550%.

US officials said that in the WTO, India committed that its tariffs on beer, wine and spirits would not exceed 150%.