India has escalated a fresh trade dispute with Washington, seeking World Trade Organisation (WTO) consultations over new US tariffs on quartz surface products – another, if not the biggest flashpoint in a relationship already strained by the absence of a bilateral trade deal. New Delhi told the WTO on August 14 that it has a “substantial interest” in Washington’s new safeguard measures and proposed holding consultations virtually.
The request came a day before the US began collecting tariffs, from August 15, on imported quartz slabs used for kitchen countertops, bathroom vanities, backsplashes and other interior surfaces. Bloomberg reported that the levies range from 19 to 50 per cent over four years, depending on when imports enter the US and whether they exceed set thresholds – the latest move by President Donald Trump to use trade levers to bolster American manufacturing. Quartz surface products are not slabs of naturally quarried quartz but engineered stone, largely made from silica, including quartz and quartz powder, combined with resin and other materials.
This is not India’s first WTO clash with Washington. In 2018, it challenged US tariffs on steel and aluminium; the two sides eventually agreed in 2023 to terminate six related WTO disputes, with India removing retaliatory tariffs on a range of American goods including almonds, walnuts and apples. India has since also challenged US tariffs on products including automobiles. The quartz safeguard follows a finding by the US International Trade Commission that a surge in imports was substantially injuring the domestic industry, prompting Trump to sign a proclamation imposing the measure.
The US accounted for roughly 72.5 per cent of India’s quartz surface-product exports in the 2025-26 financial year, according to the Global Trade Research Initiative, though shipments to the US had already fallen 35 per cent even before the safeguard took effect, to around US$233 million.How the WTO process worksUnder WTO rules, Washington must enter consultations within 30 days of India’s request. If the dispute stays unresolved after 60 days, India can seek a WTO dispute panel – a process that would ultimately test whether the US safeguard complies with the Agreement on Safeguards.
WTO rules allow governments to temporarily shield domestic industries from import surges, but only where those imports are causing or threatening serious injury, weighed against factors such as import growth, market share, sales, production, profits, productivity and employment. Safeguards are also time-limited – an initial period cannot exceed four years, and the overall period, including any extension, is capped at eight. Under WTO procedure, disputes proceed via the Dispute Settlement Understanding. Even so, the WTO cannot force Washington to lift the tariffs immediately, and its dispute-settlement system remains hampered by the continuing paralysis of its Appellate Body, which complicates enforcement.
For now, the WTO functions less as an immediate remedy than as a negotiating and legal pressure point for India, one that lets New Delhi formally question the tariffs while adding another card to play as the two countries continue negotiating a broader trade deal – talks that, despite expressed optimism on both sides, have yet to produce an agreement.
