India imposes anti-dumping duties on three Chinese products

India on Thursday imposed anti-dumping duties on three Chinese products including hydraulic rock breaker with an aim to protect domestic players from cheap imports. These duties were imposed following a recommendation by the commerce ministry’s directorate general of trade remedies (DGTR), which has concluded in its probe that dumping of these goods are impacting domestic industry.

The DGTR held investigations after complaints were filed by domestic players on the dumping of these goods.

The department of revenue has notified these duties in three separate notifications.

On hydraulic rock breakers, the duty ranged between 4.55 per cent and 162.5 per cent of CIF (cost, insurance, freight) value in US dollars. The duty was also imposed on these goods coming from Korea.

These breakers are used in the construction and mining industry for carrying out demolition, excavation, mining and boulder breaking activities.

“The anti-dumping duty imposed (on these breakers) …shall be effective for a period of five years (unless revoked, superseded or amended earlier),” according to one of the notifications. Similarly, USD 741 per lakh prices was imposed on imports of ‘Easy open ends of tin plate, including electrolytic tin plate, measuring 401 diameter (99MM) and 300 diameter (73MM) in dimension’ from China for five years. These plates are used in packaging of consumable and other items such as fresh and preserved food beverages.

The government has also imposed a provisional anti-dumping duty of USD 614 per tonne on imports of ‘Telescopic Channel Drawer Slider’ imported from China for six months.

Countries initiate anti-dumping probes to check if their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in below-cost imports. As a countermeasure, they impose duties within the multilateral regime of the WTO (World Trade Organisation).

Anti-dumping measures are taken to ensure fair trade and provide a level-playing field to the domestic industry. It is not a measure to restrict imports or cause an unjustified increase in the cost of products.