India Mulls Anti-dumping Duty on Chemical's Import from China

The Inidan government is considering to impose anti-dumping duty of up to USD 1,707 per tonne on imports of a chemical, used in making adhesives, to protect domestic industry from cheap shipments from China, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Taiwan and Thailand.

The Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD)-- the nodal agency under the commerce ministry -- has concluded in its findings that 'Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) Paste Resin' is exported by these countries to India below its normal value.

"...the Authority (DGAD) is of the view that imposition of definitive duty is required to offset the dumping and injury...," DGAD said. DGAD is an arm of the Commerce and Industry Ministry which deals with anti-dumping matters.

The restrictive duty would range between USD 1,707 and USD 1,471 per tonne, it said.

Acting on complaints from the domestic industry, DGAD had initiated probe into the dumping of the chemical from these countries which increased to 16,246 tonne in 2008-09 from 5,657 tonne in the previous fiscal.

Anti-dumping duty is recommended by the Commerce Ministry, while the Finance Ministry imposes the same.

India has already slapped anti-dumping duty on several items such as yarn, fabrics, some of the stainless steel products and chemicals.

Unlike safeguard duties, which are levied in a uniform way, anti-dumping duties vary from product to product and from country to country.

Countries initiate anti-dumping probes to check if domestic industry has been hurt because of a surge in cheap imports. As a counter measure, they impose duties under the multilateral WTO regime.