Striking against rising global protectionism, India has dragged both Turkey and Egypt to the World Trade Organisation for imposing special import duties on Indian cotton yarn, lowering competitiveness in these markets. New Delhi has been criticising Turkey for violating WTO norms at several forums of the WTO for the past few months, but it has requested formal consultations on the issue for the first time, which is the first step towards filing a dispute. Egypt, on the other hand, will be asked to explain reasons behind imposing similar duties on cotton yarn in December 2011. Both countries have resorted to safeguard duties as such levies are easier to impose since a country only has to claim that rising imports were harming the domestic industry, a government official told ET. Indian cotton yarn producers say that Egypt and Turkey, the fifth and sixth largest export destinations for the products, were growing markets and all attempts to check imports through unnecessary restrictions have to be opposed. “We are concerned by the imposition of safeguard duties by both countries and hope the issue is resolved soon,” said Siddharth Rajagopal, executive director, The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council or Texprocil. Turkey imposed safeguard duties between 12% and 17% with effect from last July over and above the customs duty of 5% making prices of India’s exports shoot up. Egypt, on the other hand, imposed a specific duty of 55 cents per kilogram of yarn in December. “In Turkey’s case we have questioned its claim that adverse effect on the domestic industry due to higher imports was because of unforeseen developments and imposition of global trade rules,” the official said. India has also challenged extension of safeguard measures that expired last year without prior determination that it was required. Since Egypt’s imposition of safeguard duties is fairly recent, India wants to first discuss the grounds on which the country imposed the measures before taking a position on the issue. Interestingly, India is the largest supplier of cotton yarn to Egypt. Indian industry believes that the Turkish market for cotton yarn is going to gain prominence with its integration with the European Union as input costs of the domestic industry including labour costs would go up giving an edge to exports from India. India exported cotton yarn worth $2.8 billion in 2010 and $1.2 billion in the first half of 2011 recording a dip of 2.62%. The decline was also due to a restriction on its exports that was imposed by the government early last year to check domestic prices which was later lifted.