Union Government imposes anti-dumping duty on imports of steel wire rods from China

The Union Government has imposed anti-dumping duty on imports of steel wire rods from China to protect domestic manufacturers from cheap in-bound shipments.
In this regard, the Department of Revenue (DoR) has issued a notification mentioning that dumping duty has been imposed for six months.
What is the case?

• The protectionist measures against cheap Chinese imports were taken based on the recommendation of Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD).
• DGAD in its investigation had found that steel wire rods were being exported by China below normal value and the domestic industry suffered material injury because of such cheap imports.

What are applications of steel wire rods?
Wire rod of alloy or non-alloy steel finds applications in many sectors such as automotive components, fasteners, welding electrodes, binding wires for construction industry and armoured cables.
What is anti-dumping duty?
Anti-dumping duty is an import duty imposed by government on imported products which have prices less than their normal values or domestic price. Thus, it is protectionist and counter import measure used by a country under the multilateral World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime to protect its domestic producers and market from below-cost/cheap imports. It varies from product to product and from country to country. In India, anti-dumping duty to be levied is recommended by the Union Ministry of Commerce (i.e. by DGAD), while the Union Finance Ministry imposes it. So far, India has initiated maximum anti-dumping cases against “below-cost” imports from China.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2016