U.S. trade officials at a World Trade Organization meeting reiterated their concern that India had not phased out its export subsidies for domestic textile and apparel producers, while Indian trade officials said they have more time. Indian trade officials attending the April 28 meeting of the WTO's Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Committee said WTO rules permit the Indian government to subsidize its domestic textile industry for three more years. The WTO previously classified India as a low-income developing country, which provided the country the flexibility to subsidize Indian textile and apparel producers without violating the organization's Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) Agreement. The WTO secretariat found that India's exports met the threshold of "export competitiveness" in 2007 and ordered the nation to phase out its textile export subsidies within an eight-year period that ends this year. India argued that it had until the end of 2018 to phase out its textile and apparel export subsidies because it was 2010 when the WTO determined that India met the threshold of "export competitiveness," according to an attendee of the April 28 meeting. Both the U.S. and India said they would pursue bilateral negotiations to resolve the issue.
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