The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has gone before Congress to object to what it calls India's restrictive trade policies. In testimony June 27 before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, John Smirnow, SEIA vice president of trade and competitiveness, urged India's leaders to return to the negotiating table to resolve outstanding trade disputes.
Smirnow told the subcommittee that India's local content requirement ‘discriminates against U.S. solar exports and, thereby, provides an unfair competitive advantage to India's domestic solar manufacturers.’
He went on to say that ‘collaboration – not litigation – is the best way to resolve these trade disputes.’
On June 7, SEIA President and CEO Rhone Resch signed a letter sent to President Obama alleging that India has ‘engaged in a persistent pattern of discrimination designed to benefit India's business community at the expense of American jobs.’
