Govt may impose anti-dumping duty on Chinese polyester yarns

The government may impose anti-dumping duty of up to USD 528 per tonne for 5 years on a Chinese polyester yarn, used in automobile and other industries, to provide a level playing field to domestic players and guard them against below-cost imports.

The commerce ministry's investigation arm, Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD), in its final findings of probe has stated that that the imposition of antidumping duty is required to offset dumping and injury on the imports of 'High Tenacity Polyester Yarn' from China.

"The authority recommends imposition of antidumping duty...for a period of five years, so as to address the injury to the domestic industry," the DGAD has said in a notification.

The recommended duty ranges between USD 174 and USD 528 per tonne. The decision to finally impose the duty was taken by the finance ministry.

SRF Ltd and Reliance Industries Ltd had jointly filed the before the DGAD for initiation of the antidumping investigation.

This yarn, also called as industrial yarn, is used for manufacture of tyre cord fabric, seat belt webbing, ropes, coated fabric, conveyor belt fabric and automotive hose.

Countries carry out anti-dumping probe to determine whether their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in below-cost imports.

As a counter measure, they impose duties under the multilateral regime of WTO.

The duty is also aimed at ensuring fair trading practises and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers with regard to foreign producers and exporters.

India has already imposed anti-dumping duty on several products to check cheap imports from countries including China, with which India has a major concern of widening trade deficit.

The deficit has increased to USD 63.12 billion in 2017-18 from.