India appeals against WTO panel report in solar cell row with US

India has appealed to the World Trade Organization's highest court--the Appellate Body, against a report published by a WTO panel over a local sourcing clause in the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission programme.

The report, submitted in February, claimed that content norms imposed by India under the solar mission were inconsistent with the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade and Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures.

The panel said the domestic content requirement accorded "less than favourable treatment" and India "failed to demonstrate" that local sourcing norms were justified.

The US had challenged the local sourcing norms with the WTO Dispute Settlement Body in February 2013. In its appeal, India has said that the local sourcing norm was well within provisions of exceptions under GATT, a commerce ministry official said.

In August 2011, the government had directed that all projects under the national solar mission must use solar cells and modules manufactured in India.

However, in the second phase of the mission, the government kept half of the total capacity of 750 MW in the programme outside the domestic content requirement. The government has set an ambitious target of 100 GW of solar power generation, and 60 GW of wind energy generation, with a total of 175 GW of renewable power by 2022, at an estimated investment of $200bln.