In a major victory for India, World Trade Organisation on Wednesday reversed its earlier compliance ruling on Indian bed linen dispute with the European Union.

The appellate body, in a report issued on April 8, reversed a dispute settlement panel's findings, which had gone against India regarding the method of calculation of anti-dumping duty by EU on imports of bed linen.

The body has said, 'the European Union had acted inconsistently in applying the provisions of anti-dumping agreement in determining the volume of dumped imports for determining the injury caused to domestic producers'.

Commerce ministry sources in New Delhi described the ruling as a major victory as this was the key issue on which India had appealed to WTO.

Though the appellate body had rejected two of the three appeals lodged by the Indian government against the WTO panel's decision of November, the reversing of the panel's earlier ruling only substantiated India's claim that Brussels had erred in the way it calculated dumped bed linen imports.

Two other appeals were only technical in nature and they were not significant from India's point of view.

Meanwhile in Brussels, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said in a statement: "We will now carefully analyse the implications of this report and draw the appropriate conclusions for its implementation."

The EU's anti-dumping measures against Indian bed linen were suspended in August 2001 in the light of a previous panel ruling that said it did not comply fully with WTO rules.