The US has informed the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that the Donald Trump administration’s decision to levy tariffs on steel and aluminium, was based on national security grounds and should not be considered as safeguard measures. The US defence came in response to India filing a request with the WTO on April 11 for the holding of consultations with the US on the tariff hikes under the WTO’s Safeguards Agreement.

India has said that despite the US’s characterisation of these measures as security measures, they are, in essence, safeguard measures. It also pointed out that the US has failed to notify the WTO Committee on Safeguards under a provision of the Agreement on Safeguards on taking a decision to apply these measures.

The Trump administration, in its response to the WTO dated April 17, stated: “The US notes that the premise for India’s request for consultations under Article 12.3 of the Agreement on Safeguards is that the tariffs are safeguard measures. The President imposed the tariffs on steel and aluminium pursuant to Section 232, under which the President determined that tariffs are necessary to adjust imports of steel and aluminium articles that threaten to impair the national security of the US,” Washington stated in its response to the WTO, dated April 17.

The US also claimed that Section 232 is a national security statute, and the tariffs are being kept in place under the security exception allowed under a provision of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994. The defence further stated that the tariffs were not imposed under a provision of the Trade Act of 1974, which is the law under which the US imposes safeguard measures.

“The United States is not maintaining these actions pursuant to the safeguards / emergency action provision.These actions are not safeguard measures and, therefore, there is no basis to conduct consultations under the Agreement on Safeguards with respect to these measures,” the US has stated in its defence.