India may extend dumping duty on 25 Chinese items including nylon tyre cord

India may extend anti-dumping duties and safeguards on more than two dozen Chinese goods ranging from calculators and USB drives to steel, solar cells and Vitamin E amid concern that a flood of imports would kill domestic manufacturers who will lose duty protection soon against such products , two officials aware of the development said.

India’s total imports from China was $70.32 billion in 2018-19 with substantial contributions of these 25 items. Anti-dumping duties on these products were imposed 5 years ago and are expiring this year. Safeguard duty on solar cells and modules was imposed on July 30, 2018, and it is expiring on July 29, 2020.

The government is closely monitoring the imports of about 25 items from China on which anti-dumping duties and safeguard levies that have already been imposed would expire later in this calendar year, the officials at two different economic ministries said, requesting anonymity.

Dumping, an unfair trade practice that entails the export of a product at a price lower than its normal value, is countered by a punitive anti-dumping duty. A safeguard duty is also imposed to check an unexpected import surge that poses a threat the domestic industry.

Chinese imports under review include sodium citrate, USB flash drives, calculators, hot-rolled flat products of stainless steel,Vitamin C and E, nylon tyre cord, measuring tapes, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), flax fabrics,caustic soda, float glass, tableware, kitchenware, plastic processing machinery and solar cells, officials said.

“In the case of sodium citrate, the duty protection against Chinese was expiring on May 19. After a thorough investigation the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) recommended to extend anti-dumping duty on Chinese imports last Thursday,” one of the officials said.

Sodium citrate is a key chemical compound used by the pharmaceutical industry. The government had imposed an anti-dumping duty on its imports from China in May 2015.

DGTR, previously known as the Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties, is an arm of the ministry of commerce and industry and acts as a single-window agency providing a level playing field to the domestic industry against such unfair trade practices.

The spokesperson for the commerce and industry ministry did not respond to an email query on the matter.

The second official cited above said, “The directorate [DGTR] has doubled its capacity to investigate import distortions that are causing injury to Indian industries. It can now probe at least 50 such cases in a year.”