India and 17 countries face U.S. Anti-Dumping Tax

The United States Department of Commerce is all set to tax aluminium sheet exporters from the 18 countries including India after the department determine that these countries had benefited from subsidies and dumping.

Highlights

This decision was taken by the US Department of Commerce after several U.S. aluminium alloy manufacturers complained that they were being harmed because of imports at the lower prices. A U.S. investigation on India states that, in the year 2019, Imports from India have benefited from subsidies for 35 percent to 89 percent.

About Dumping

When a country or company exports any product at a price which is lower in the foreign importing market as compared to the price in the domestic market of the exporters is called as Dumping. The dumping has the ability to flood the market with product prices which are considered to be unfair. The dumping process is legal as per the norms of the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, action can be taken of the foreign country can show the negative effects that any exporting firm has caused to its domestic producers.

Anti-Dumping Measures

Countries use several tariffs and quotas in order to protect their domestic producers from dumping. Some of them are listed below:

1.   Anti-dumping duty (ADD)

The customs duty which is applied on the imports with the objective of providing a protection against the dumping of goods which are being sold at prices lower than the normal value is called as “Anti-Dumping Duty”. This price is charged by the foreign producers for the comparable sales in their own countries.

2.   Countervailing duty

The custom duty on products which have received the subsidies provided by the government in the exporting country or the originating country is called the countervailing duty. It is imposed so as to counter the negative impact of import subsidies which in turn protect the domestic producers.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2021