The Permanent Mission of the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu to the WTO welcomes the final panel report issued on 17 April 2023 on India — Tariff Treatment on Certain Goods in the Information and Communications Technology Sector, which finds that India’s tariffs of certain information and communications technology (ICT) products are inconsistent with India’s obligations under Article II:1(a) and (b) of the GATT 1994. We are still confident in relying on the WTO dispute settlement mechanism to secure our rights and interests in protecting our industries and our export interests.  We would like to thank the panel for its efforts and straightforward ruling in confirming our view that India has no right to unilaterally increase its tariffs on our ICT products.

In recent years, due to the US-China trade tension and geopolitical factors, many of our ICT products manufacturers have been investing in India. They, together with India’s other domestic buyers, require the export of components from us. Undesirably, the Indian government has progressively imposed tariffs of up to 20% on 32 categories of ICT products (including mobile phones, base stations, handheld handsets and other parts of the telecommunications products) since 2014 for the purpose of protect its domestic industries. The increases of tariffs are apparently in breach of India’s commitment to impose zero-tariff on such products under the GATT 1994 and India’s Tariff Schedule annexed thereto. In 2022, the value of our exports being affected by India’s breach of its tariff commitments reached up to USD 930 million.

Given that the ICT industry is of high importance for us, our authorities, together with domestic stakeholders, decided to launch a legal proceeding against India for the purpose of correcting India’s mistreatment of our ICT exports. In addition to our case (DS588) filed in 2019, EU and Japan filed parallel cases (DS582/DS584) to address the similar tariff measures on ICT products adopted by India.

The panel confirmed that the challenged measures of India nullified or impaired benefits accruing to us under the GATT 1994 and recommend that India brings such measures into conformity with its obligations.

Due to the facts that India’s breach of its GATT obligation is clear and that our bilateral economic relations in relation to the ICT sectors is intimate and crucial to both sides, we are of high expectation that India will respect the ruling and immediately remove all illegal tariffs accordingly. We will also continue to collaborate with the EU and Japan to consider necessary steps to encourage India’s full compliance with the Panel’s ruling.

We would also hope that the WTO continues playing its role in helping Members to resolve their disputes and ensure compliance in an effective manner.