MUMBAI: India is likely to impose antidumping duty of up to $92.23 per tonne on import of a chemical used in pharmaceutical and agriculture sectors from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia, following a Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties probe.
The duty, if imposed, will protect domestic players from cheap imports of ‘saturated fatty alcohols’ from these four nations.
DGAD — the investigating arm of the Commerce Ministry — initiated a probe into the alleged dumping of the chemical on a complaint from the domestic industry.
The probe concluded that the product was exported to India from these nations “below its associated normal value, thus, resulting in dumping of the product,” DGAD said in a notification.
It also said some of the imports were causing material injury to the domestic industry.
“The authority recommends imposition of definitive anti-dumping duty equal to the lesser of the margin of dumping and the margin of injury, so as to remove the injury to the domestic industry,” it said.
Antidumping duty is aimed at ensuring fair trading practices and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers vis-a-vis foreign producers and exporters.
Imposing such duty is permissible under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime. Both India and China are members of the Geneva-based body.
VVF (India) Ltd had filed the application for initiating the antidumping investigation concerning imports of saturated fatty alcohols.
The DGAD has recommended the duty in the range of $92.23-7.10 per tonne. Finance Ministry takes the final call to impose these duties.
