India blocked a WTO investigation of its import duties on US wine and spirits yesterday, temporarily delaying a US government complaint over allegations that Indian rules discriminate against products such as Napa Valley wine and Jack Daniel's whiskey.
The Geneva-based trade referee was already reviewing a European legal challenge of wine and liquor restrictions in a number of Indian states. A second investigative panel examining Washington's arguments will almost certainly be established at a meeting later this month of the WTO's dispute settlement body.
"The layers of customs duties India applies to US products, in particular to wine and distilled spirits, are not in line with its WTO commitments," US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said last month in announcing plans to seek litigation. "We must ensure a level playing field for US products around the world."
India's basic import duties on wine are 100 percent, while the tariff on spirits is 150 percent, both within WTO limits. However, various government surcharges take the tariffs up to levels reaching as high as 550 percent, depending on the Indian state.
The state of Tamil Nadu goes further still, shutting out foreign alcohol and allowing shops to sell only Indian-made spirits and wines.
The US, the EU and Japan, by contrast, allow nearly all spirits to enter their markets duty-free. China tacks on only a 10 percent charge on foreign liquor.
Under WTO rules, a second request for a formal investigation is automatically approved. A case can result in punitive sanctions being authorized, but panels take many months and sometimes years to reach a decision.
India is one of the largest markets for alcohol in the world and has huge potential for growth.
The US said wine sales in India through special duty-free rules, such as at airports and luxury hotels, grew 350 percent between 2000 and 2005. The growth was 200 percent for US liquors.
But high import duties imposed on the vast majority of US wines and spirits meant total exports remained low, the US said. The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States estimated that all foreign liquors accounted for less than 1 percent of the Indian market.
The 27-country EU, in making its complaint, said India bought 23.3 million euros (US$31.3 million) in European spirits in 2004 -- from French cognac to Finnish vodka -- and 4 million euros in Bordeaux, Chianti, Rioja and other European wines.
This compared with global European spirits exports amounting to 5 billion euros and wine exports of 4.5 billion euros each year.
It was unclear if the US and the EU would seek to become co-complainants by combining their separate WTO cases.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”