US tells WTO to stop China and India abusing subsidies to boost exports

THE United States has filed a complaint against China and India for its lack of transparency over nearly 250 subsidy programmes, thus failing to meet its obligations under World Trade Organisation accords.

"Because China and India have failed to meet their obligations, we had to act - as we are entitled to under the WTO rules - and provide the voluminous information we have developed regarding subsidy programmes in these two countries," said US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.


"The situation was simply intolerable," he said, adding that China has murky trade policies and has yet failed to provide details of at least 200 subsidy programmes since December 2001.


"China and India are among the largest exporters in the WTO, and it is simply not acceptable that they continue to evade their transparency commitments," he added, reported American Shipper. He said every member is required to submit information on its programmes on a regular basis.


India only recently filed its first notification in almost 10 years, and even then notified only three of the many subsidy programmes we know to exist, which at last count came in at 50, Mr Kirk said.