Wooden flooring import likely to face anti-dumping duty

The government is likely to impose an anti-dumping duty of up to USD 6.9 per sq m on imports of certain kind of wooden flooring from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, European Union.
The move is aimed at guarding domestic players from cheap imports of 'Veneered Engineered Wooden Flooring' from these regions.
Greenlam Industries had asked for an anti-dumping probe and imposition of levy to discourage cheap imports.
The Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD), the investigation arm of the commerce ministry, in its probe has concluded that the product has been exported to India from these countries below its normal value, which has resulted in dumping.

The domestic industry has suffered material injury due to the dumping of the product, the DGAD said in a notification.
The duty recommended was in the range of USD 0.56 per sq m and USD 6.9 per sq m. The finance ministry takes the final call to impose the levy.

"The authority considers it necessary to recommend imposition of definitive anti-dumping duty on imports" of the goods imported from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, European Union.
The imports increased to 313,622 sq m during the period of investigation (october 2015-September 2016) from 247,480 sq m in 2013-14.
Greenlam Industries had filed a written petition on behalf of the domestic industry, alleging dumping of the wooden flooring exported from these countries.

Countries carry out anti-dumping probe to determine whether their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in cheap 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.
The country has imposed the duty on as many as 98 products, as on December 27 last year, imported from China.