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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe United States Has Blocked a Plan by India to Expand Solar Power and Create Local Jobs
This piece first appeared at Climate News Network.
LONDONIndia has been told that it cannot go ahead as planned with its ambitious plan for a huge expansion of its renewable energy sector, because it seeks to provide work for Indian people. The case against India was brought by the US.
The ruling, by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), says Indias National Solar Missionwhich would create local jobs, while bringing electricity to millions of peoplemust be changed because it includes a domestic content clause requiring part of the solar cells to be produced nationally.
What a difference two months make. On 12 December last year, US President Barack Obama praised the Paris Agreement on tackling climate change, just hours after it was finally concluded. Weve shown whats possible when the world stands as one, he said, adding that the agreement represents the best chance we have to save the one planet that weve got.
Clear-cut victory
The WTO says that its dispute settlement panel handed the US a clear-cut victory . . . when it found that local content requirements India imposed on private solar power producers in a massive solar project violated trade rules, although the two sides are still discussing a potential settlement to the dispute. ................(more)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_united_states_has_blocked_a_plan_by_india_to_expand_20160226
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)By adding the illegal domestic content clause. Easy fix is to remove it.
marmar
(77,086 posts)Why should it be illegal to have your own country's firms get the contracts? Only in the warped logic of "free" trade.
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)That is not free trade. I do not like these free trade deals anyway.
marmar
(77,086 posts).... that India isn't allowed to give its local companies preference. That's insanity.
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)Now they have to live with that choice. I doubt we could compete anyway.
marmar
(77,086 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/countries_e/india_e.htm
Baobab
(4,667 posts)Last edited Sat Feb 27, 2016, 04:33 PM - Edit history (1)
These two stories may have some usefulness..
http://www.iatp.org/blog/201602/obama-undermines-climate-efforts-in-solar-trade-dispute
No green jobs for you! Secret EU-US trade agreement threatens Minnesotas solar rebate and other local green job programs
Playing the devils advocate, this is likely another coverup, like the mess in health care, of the consequences of secret trade deals behind the scenes that will 1.) make energy much more expensive, by exporting natural gas thats been barred from export for 50 years - 2.) claiming it will create stimulus, after 1 causes massive job losses and housing losses and loss of rent stabilization in cities due to sudden price increases, solution will be proposed- allocate federal money for 'infrastructure' (since millions will be forced into the countryside and need energy efficient housing' which will stimulate owners of contracting firms and create millions of low wage jobs which 3.) due to services procurement liberalisation, will be bid out INTERNATIONALLY, and likely will go to firms in countries like India that supply the workers- these deals will funnel money to already rich people and wont create the stimulus - in the sense people think, thats the consequences of corporate rule-
The only jobs that will be created will have to be compliant with US ideology which means that low wages will funnel green jobs to low bidders - the lowest qualified bidder, and all trading partners of the US will win, not 'overpaid' US workers, because - of the fact that I explained in the title..
Its more profitable to use trade deals now to get workers because no wage parity laws apply to L1 contractors working under treaty provisions..
This solar case is perhaps prearranged theatre..
Like Obamacare failing on schedule, I suspect it is a way of per-conditioning the world to think that some natural process is occurring.. when its all pre-arranged, I suspect..
the hubub is all about the trading of jobs for markets in a huge global poker game - by means of trade deals..
But "Mode Four" as it is called is an extremely sensitive subject, because Americans want those jobs that are being promised to other countries. But American wages are seen as higher than global norms reflect, and it would be politically unpopular to lower them to sub-subsistence levels. Just so American firms could win contracts going to Third World staffing firms, after all, people will be starving.
pampango
(24,692 posts)I can decide not to join because, on balance, I believe the bad outweighs the good in those rules. Or I can go ahead and join because, while there is bad, I believe it is outweighed by the good.
India has been a member of GATT/WTO since 1948. If they were to believe that the bad now outweighs the good, they can withdraw from the WTO. Several republican state party platforms in recent years have urged the US to do just that so that the US can make its own rules and disregard what other countries might want.
randome
(34,845 posts)Remove the clause and nothing is stopped.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]TECT in the name of the Representative approves of this post.[/center][/font][hr]
marmar
(77,086 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)ronnie624
(5,764 posts)The path to mitigating the impending climate disasters, will require fundamental change and sacrifice that can be pretty frightening in its implications. For Americans, it will mean a loss of global preeminence, and that scares the hell out of many.
branford
(4,462 posts)Neither issue has anything to do with mitigation of any impending climate disaster or prevents India from expanding its use of solar power.
However, it appears that you openly believe that the loss of American influence is a feature, not a bug, to any climate change mitigation proposals. Do you really expect that to change American opinion in favor of the climate plans you support, or more realistically, expect opinions to harden?
ronnie624
(5,764 posts)Americans need to learn to become members of the global community, in cooperation with other nations.
branford
(4,462 posts)because protectionist measures, particularly while part of the WTO, does not exactly signal "global community."
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)No country should be able to have it both ways - free trade when advantageous to that country (and disadvantageous to others), but domestic-advantaged when it suits the country's own interests.
That is not free trade.
If you want to argue that India would do better to junk free-trade pacts, fine.
In general, once countries have agreed to international treaties they should abide by them.
malaise
(269,144 posts)everything
tazkcmo
(7,300 posts)I guess we can buy a new planet after we're done destroying this one.
branford
(4,462 posts)without violating voluntarily entered into WTO agreements that prohibit certain protectionist measures, particularly where WTO membership has benefited India?
tazkcmo
(7,300 posts)Money sucks. It's the root of all evil and holds back progress.
branford
(4,462 posts)Shall we return to the barter system, or do you favor some one world centralized communist government? The conversion from the former allowed for virtually all of advanced civilization and technological advancement, and in addition to the total lack of any sort of democratic mandate or support, communism has been proven quite the failed economic and political system.
Further, what "progress" does money hold back? As history clearly demonstrates, it's most certainly not matters like technological innovation.
Humans are greedy, tribal and competitive. Money is not a cause of evil or anything else, it's simply a means of exchange.
RedCappedBandit
(5,514 posts)Authoritarians will love this.
NNadir
(33,538 posts)Solar cells represent a huge toxicological hazard, provide very little energy, and are an unfortunate fad that will leave the world even more impoverished than it was in the first place.
In the last ten years, the world "invested" nearly two trillion dollars in solar and wind energy, which combined do not produce even 5 of the 560 exajoules humanity consumes each year. For this money we could have doubled the per capita annual income of a billion Indians.
As a result of this so called "investment" in so called "renewable energy," the world is burning more coal, more gas, and more petroleum than ever. We can see the signature very clearly in the planetary atmosphere. The year just passed is either the worst or second worst (depending on the final compilation of the data in March 2016) ever observed in recorded history for increases in carbon dioxide.
I gave the details here: It's looking very bad these last few weeks at the Mauna Loa carbon dioxide observatory. Another poster in that thread produced this telling graphic that sums it up perfectly.
It's clearly not working and it will not work. The reason is pure physics, low energy to mass ratio, reliance on unsustainable materials, process costs, including environmental process costs, unreliability, ignored disposal issues, and the requirement for instantaneous back up.
The misplaced faith in this technology has been an ethical disaster of the first order, but unfortunately the world is oblivious to that fact. I am very proud to among the first to question this disastrous if popular policy of generating vast amounts of future intractable electronic waste.
Solar PV electricity is not sustainable; it is not safe; it is not economic.
Happily for India, they have one of the most innovative approaches to nuclear fuel management in the world.
Whatever the reason that India is not participating in this future nightmare, the result is a positive.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)And coal.
elleng
(131,053 posts)I'm not a student of this as you appear to be, but aren't there problems with disposability/waste?
randome
(34,845 posts)Get private space ventures involved and prices will drop and we can ship all the waste to the Moon.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]TECT in the name of the Representative approves of this post.[/center][/font][hr]
NNadir
(33,538 posts)Overall, the constituents of used nuclear fuel are extremely valuable.
NNadir
(33,538 posts)...here: Current World Energy Demand, Ethical World Energy Demand, Depleted Uranium and the Centuries to Come
Thanks for asking. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
daleo
(21,317 posts)It's past its best before date, intellectually, but it will take decades for that change to take hold in the day to day world.
JI7
(89,260 posts)pampango
(24,692 posts)and Calvin Coolidge countries did whatever they wanted to do to each other.
India could always withdraw from the WTO. Several republican state party platforms have urged the US to do just that in recent years.