On 17 April, the WTO circulated three-panel reports on the cases brought by the European Union, Japan, and Chinese Taipei in “India — Tariff Treatment on Certain Goods in the Information and Communications Technology Sector” (DS582), “India — Tariff Treatment on Certain Goods” (DS584) and “India — Tariff Treatment on Certain Goods in the Information and Communications Technology Sector” (DS588) respectively.
In simple words, the panel found that India is imposing customs duties on certain IT goods, which is more than the agreed bound rates. India, on the other hand, has vehemently contested these claims. The purpose of the note is to unlock this dispute in as simple terms as possible, by laying out the history, arguments, and counterarguments — some verbatim, directly from the panel report itself — enabling and helping the readers to draw their own conclusions.
