India has firmly rejected allegations made by the US Trade Representative relating to extra structural capability and unfair commerce practices beneath Section 301 investigations
India has strongly rejected allegations by the US Trade Representative in its investigations on extra structural capability and manufacturing involving a number of international locations, together with India, asserting that the initiation discover has failed to offer “cogent rationale” to substantiate the claims.
India requests that the USTR problem a destructive dedication with respect to India and terminate the investigation towards it, based on a submission from New Delhi to the USTR.
On March 11, the US introduced initiation of investigations towards its buying and selling companions, together with India, China, Japan and the EU, to look into and handle “unfair foreign practices” that adversely affect American manufacturing.
Section 301 investigations defined
United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer introduced the initiation of a probe relating to the “acts, policies, and practices” of numerous economies beneath Section 301(b) of the Trade Act of 1974, referring to structural extra capability and manufacturing in manufacturing sectors.
The economies topic to those investigations are Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
India rejects allegations outright
The Government of India in response to the discover issued by the US Trade Representative (USTR) on the initiation of Section 301 investigation referring to structural extra capability and manufacturing in manufacturing sectors, “firmly denies all allegations made in the initiation notice”.
“The initiation Notice is premised on aggregate macroeconomic indicators, without identifying any specific act, policy or practice of the Government of India that could be considered ‘unreasonable or discriminatory’ and that ‘burdens or restricts United States commerce’ as required by Section 301(b) of the Act,” based on the submission made by India.
No proof, says India
The discover, it stated, gives no cogent rationale or prima facie proof to substantiate its allegation that India has “structural excess capacity” in its main industries, resulting in a commerce surplus with the United States.
“India submits that the present investigation does not satisfy the requirements for the initiation of this investigation pursuant to Sections 301 and 302 of the Trade Act of 1974. India calls upon the USTR to make a negative determination and terminate the investigation forthwith,” it stated.
Bilateral talks most well-liked route
It added that since India and the US have initiated a course of of negotiating a Bilateral Trade Agreement, any commerce considerations needs to be addressed inside the framework of the commerce negotiations and never via unilateral measures.
“India remains willing to constructively engage with the United States in the underlying investigation, including any consultation,” it stated.
Forced labour probe additionally challenged
Similarly, in its response to a different investigations launched by the USTR on March 12 towards quantity of nations together with India on failure to take motion on pressured labour, India has submited that the probe doesn’t fulfill the authorized necessities for the initiation.
“India requests the USTR to make a negative determination and terminate the investigation against India. Additionally, India remains willing to constructively engage with the United States in the underlying investigation, including any consultation,” based on India’s submission.
On behalf of the federal government of india, the submissions have been made by the commerce and trade ministry.
On March 12, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) launched a Section 301 probe, overlaying 60 economies, together with India and China.
The investigation will decide whether or not acts, insurance policies, and practices of every of these economies associated to the failure to impose and successfully implement a ban on the importation of items produced with pressured labour are unreasonable or discriminatory, and burden or prohibit US commerce.
On March 11, the USTR launched a separate Section 301 commerce investigation, concentrating on insurance policies and industrial practices of 16 economies, together with India and China.
It has said that these are public non-confidential abstract of the Government of India’s written submission filed with USTR. The full submission is filed individually and marked as confidential.
Published on April 15, 2026