India slaps anti-dumping duty on steel from China, Vietnam, Korea

Indian government on Tuesday imposed anti-dumping duty on imports of ”Flat rolled product of steel, plated or coated with alloy of Aluminium and Zinc” originated from China, Vietnam, South Korea for a period of five years to safeguard domestic manufacturers from cheap imports.The duty imposed is in the range of USD 13.07 per tonne to USD 173.1 per tonne on imports of ‘Flat rolled product of steel, plated or coated with alloy of Aluminium and Zinc’ from these three countries.

Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR)

• The Government of India created ‘Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties-DGAD’ in place of ‘Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties-DGAD’ in the year 2018.
• DGTR was created with the objective of building a comprehensive and speedy trade protection system in the country.

Meaning of dumping and anti-dumping duty?

• The term dumping is most commonly used to refer to international trade law, where dumping refers to the export of a product by a manufacturer of a country to a country either below its domestic price or below its cost of production. Doing it happens.
• It is noteworthy that dumping affects the price of that commodity in the importing country as well as reduces the profitability of the domestic industry there.
• According to global trade norms, a country is allowed to levy a duty on this type of dumping to protect its domestic manufacturers and provide them an equal opportunity.
• However, this fee can be levied only after a thorough investigation by a quasi-judicial body such as the Directorate General of Trade Treatment (DGTR) in India.
• With the approval of the World Trade Organization (WTO-World Trade Organization), Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade General Agreement on Tariff & Trade-GATT allows countries to choose to take action against dumping.
• Thus, we can say that when a country imposes a duty equal to the difference between the cost of the product and the price of the product in the exporting country to protect its domestic industries and reduce their losses, then it is the same anti-dumping duty i.e. -Dumping fee is called.

UPSC