US conducted countervailing probe on certain Indian goods: MoS Commerce

The US has conducted countervailing investigations on certain Indian goods such as paper file folders, and common alloy aluminum sheet, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

The European Commission (EC) has also conducted a similar probe on certain graphite electrode systems, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

She said that the Indian government and the affected exporters have strongly defended the subsidy allegation against various programmes and schemes of the government, both at central and state level, in their written and oral responses during the conduct of investigations.

"The products for which countervailing investigations have been conducted and a final determination of CVD (countervailing duty) has been made include Paper File Folders, Common Alloy Aluminum Sheet and Forged Steel Fluid End Blocks by US," she said.

Countervailing duty is a country-specific duty imposed to safeguard the domestic industry against unfair trade subsidies provided by the local governments of the exporting nations.

In a separate reply, she said that the reasons for decline in merchandise exports include high base of last year, persisting geopolitical tensions including Russia-Ukraine conflict, and monetary tightening along with recessionary fears that have led to a decline in consumer spending across advanced nations and the consequential slowdown in demands.

The fall in commodity prices have also contributed to this, the minister said.