Japan takes India to WTO over mobile phone import duties

GENEVA: Japan has complained at the World Trade Organization about India's duties on mobile phones, base stations and routers, and the circuit boards and other components that go into them, a WTO filing showed on Tuesday.

Japan's complaint, the first step in a legal dispute, said India had sought to foster domestic production by adjusting various taxes including customs duties, especially since it launched the "Make in India" campaign in September 2014.

Some of the tariffs on goods of substantial interest to Japan were now "clearly in excess" of the rates allowed by the WTO, Japan said.