<div>The issue of level-playing field for US solar equipment manufacturers following the World Trade Organization's (WTO) ruling against India will be taken up during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US later this month.</div><div> </div><div>Narendra Modi will be in the US from September 24-30.</div><div> </div><div>According to a report in <em>The Telegraph</em>, commerce ministry officials said India was likely to appeal against the dispute settlement panel's ruling, which could offer a two-year breather to India. There can also be a bilateral arrangement with the US because it is an important trading partner.</div><div> </div><div>Last month, a WTO panel has ruled against India in a dispute raised by the US over the country's solar power programme, requiring the government to offer a level playing field to both foreign and domestic manufacturers of solar panels.</div><div> </div><div>The US filed a complaint in the WTO in February 2014 alleging discrimination by India's national solar mission against American products.</div><div> </div><div>The US raised the dispute over the Indian government's imposition of local content requirements for solar cells and solar modules. The Centre has offered financial support of up to Rs 1 crore per megawatt (MW) to the implementing agency for setting up large solar capacities by placing orders with domestic manufacturers.</div><div> </div><div>WTO members are not supposed to insist on national content requirements that discriminate against foreign products. Governments are also required to provide "national" treatment, under which imports must be treated on a par with domestically manufactured products.</div><div> </div><div>Officials maintained that the WTO ruling would not have an impact on the ambitious target to raise solar power generation capacity by five times to 1,00,000 MW by 2022 at an investment of around Rs 6 lakh crore.</div><div> </div><div>After reaching the target, India will become one of the largest green energy producers, surpassing several developed countries. The US is keen on grabbing a slice of this market, according to several reports.</div><div> </div><div>India is vital to the US because it is the second-largest export market for US solar products and its national solar programme — which is among the most ambitious in the world — is set to grow 20-fold during the next decade.</div><div> </div><div>Solar power has triggered a series of trade disputes as countries around the world try to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels by developing homegrown renewable power industries.</div><div> </div><div>This is the second case that India has lost to the US at the WTO. In June, the WTO's appellate body upheld an earlier ruling against an Indian ban on poultry meat and eggs supplied by American producers. The ban had been imposed to prevent an outbreak of avian influenza.</div><div> </div><div>In a confidential report issued to the US and India last week, a three-member dispute settlement panel headed by the former New Zealand envoy, ambassador David Walker, pronounced that New Delhi violated global trade rules by imposing local content requirements for solar cells and solar modules under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), according to a report in <em>Mint</em>.</div><div> </div><div>The WTO panel's ruling comes in the backdrop of Narendra Modi's Make in India programme, aimed at attracting foreign investment and turning India into a manufacturing hub.</div><div> </div><div>India needs as much as $200 billion to meet its green energy target to install 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power and 60,000MW of wind power by 2022.</div><div> </div><div>India Ratings said it expected a strong growth in solar power installations over the next 4-5 years, driven both by the government impetus of 100GW of solar power by 2021-22 (60GW through grid connected solar projects) and a decline in generation costs.</div>
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