US takes India to WTO in solar power dispute

GENEVA: India has failed to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling on solar power, the United States will tell the WTO’s dispute settlement body (DSB) next month, triggering a fresh round of litigation, according to an agenda issued on Wednesday.

Renewable energy has become a hot area of trade friction as major economies compete to dominate a sector that is expected to thrive as reliance on coal and oil dwindles. India unveiled its national solar programme in 2011, seeking to ease chronic energy shortages in Asia´s third-largest economy without creating pollution. But the United States complained to the WTO in 2013, saying the programme was discriminatory and US solar exports to India had fallen by 90 percent from 2011.