India has hinted that it will consider retaliatory measures against the US if it fails to repeal the controversial Byrd Amendment soon. As per a World Trade Organisation ruling, the US was required to repeal the amendment by December 2003.

The matter was raised by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath during his discussions with US Trade Representative Rob Portman here yesterday. Officials said the US assured India that the repealing bill was likely to be considered by Congress within the next two weeks.

The United States' Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (CDSOA, commonly known as the Byrd Amendment) allows distribution of collected anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties to its domestic companies.

India, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the European Union, Japan, Korea and Mexico have already taken an authorisation from the WTO to take retaliatory action against the US for its non-compliance. In fact, Canada and the EU imposed retaliatory measures in May this year.

The measures would allow India to impose additional import duty on US products, officials said. The US has already rejected a request by India to withdraw its anti-dumping duty on Indian shrimps in the wake of the adverse impact of the tsunami on its marine industry.

Though the US agreed to review the duty, it recently reaffirmed its decision to retain the anti-dumping duty on shrimps.

During the bilateral negotiations, Portman pitched for opening up the financial services sector in India, including allowing foreign direct investment in retail. India stated that FDI in retail will take some time.

Portman also sought an increase in the number of bank branches and said the Indian government must allow increased level of equity participation in the insurance sector.

In response, India said it was willing to consider this if such branches were opened in smaller towns.