India clamps anti-dumping duty to check flood of cheap Chinese goods

New Delhi: India has imposed anti-dumping duty on four Chinese products, including aluminium foil, to safeguard domestic industry as these goods were being exported by the neighbouring country at below-normal prices.

The duties have been imposed on soft ferrite cores, vacuum-insulated flasks of a certain thickness, aluminium foil and trichloro-isocyanuric acid, as the inflow of these cheap goods into the Indian market was hurting domestic manufacturers of these products.

The notifications issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) state that the duty has been levied for a period of five years on the imports of soft ferrite cores, vacuum-insulated flasks, and trichloro-isocyanuric acid which is used as a disinfectant, chlorinating agent, and bleaching agent. It’s commonly found in tablet or granular form, and is the active ingredient in “chlorine” tablets used for swimming pool sanitation.

An anti-dumping duty of up to $873 per tonne has been imposed on aluminium foil for six months.

The CBIC has levied a duty that ranges from $276 per tonne to $986 per tonne on imports of trichloro isocyanuric acid imported from China and Japan.

A duty of up to 35 per cent on CIF (cost, insurance freight) value has been imposed on the import of soft ferrite cores that are used for making electric vehicles, chargers, and telecom devices while an anti-dumping duty of $1,732 per tonne has been levied on vacuum insulated flasks.

These duties were imposed after an investigation by the Commerce Ministry’s Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR ) found that these products were being dumped below the cost of production and were hurting Indian industry. A safeguard duty is levied as a temporary tariff barrier imposed to shield domestic industries from a surge in imports.

The levying of anti-dumping duties is allowed under the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and is aimed at ensuring fair trading practices and safeguarding producers and manufacturers from unfair trade practices.

Similarly, India’s DGTR, on March 19, recommended a 12 per cent safeguard duty on some steel products, to protect the country’s domestic industry from a surge in dumping of cheap imports from countries like China, South Korea and Vietnam, due to the sharp increase in US tariffs announced by the Donald Trump administration.

The findings are now open for comments for 30 days, after which the final decision will be announced. In view of the above conclusion, the authority considered the appropriate measure to be imposed provisionally. The objective is to protect the domestic industry for the product under consideration, against the surge of imports, it said.

Trade diversion due to the protective measures imposed by the United States has been a major cause of the surge in imports.

IANS