Antidumping duty likely on certain steel items from China

The government has initiated a probe into dumping of certain steel items used in automotive and construction industry from China, in order to protect the domestic industry.
SAIL, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, Usha Martin and JSW Steel have filed a petition before the DGAD for initiation of anti-dumping investigation and imposition of the taxes on the alleged dumped imports of "Wire Rod of Alloy or Non-Alloy Steel" originating in or exported from China.
The Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) "prima facie finds sufficient evidence of dumping" of the products from that country.
"The authority hereby initiates an investigation into the alleged dumping causing consequent injury to the domestic industry... To determine the existence, degree and effect of dumping and recommend the amount of anti-dumping duty, which if levied, would be adequate to remove the injury to the domestic industry," the DGAD has said in a notification.

The period of investigation covers July-December 2015. The injury investigation period will also cover 2012-2013, 2013-2014, 2014-2015, April 2015-December 2015.
Besides, it said the applicants have requested for retrospective imposition of the anti-dumping duty.

The products under consideration in this investigation are bars and rods, hot-rolled, irregularly wound coils, iron or non-alloy steel or alloy steel, which are commonly known as wire rods.
It is used in many applications and sectors such as automotive components, welding electrodes, fasteners including nuts and bolts, nails, railway sleepers, general engineering, binding wires for construction industry, armoured cables.
Countries start anti-dumping probe to determine whether their domestic industries have been hurt due to surge in below-cost imports. As a counter measure, they impose duties under the multilateral regime of WTO.

The duty is aimed at ensuring fair trading practices and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers vis-a-vis foreign producers and exporters.
India has already imposed anti-dumping duty on several products to tackle cheap imports from some countries including China.
According to a WTO report, India, the US and Brazil were the leading initiators of anti-dumping investigations in 2015.
The WTO members initiated 107 new anti-dumping investigations from January-June 2015, slightly up from 106 in the same period in 2014, the report added.