India imposes anti-dumping duty on digital printing plates from China, Japan, 3 other nations

India has imposed anti-dumping duty on digital printing plates from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam for five years with a view to guard domestic manufacturers from cheap imports from these countries.

The Commerce Ministry's investigation arm Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) recommended the duty after its probe concluded that there is a substantial increase in imports of digital offset printing plates from these countries in absolute terms.

"The anti-dumping duty imposed under this notification shall be effective for a period of five years (unless revoked, superseded or amended earlier)," the Department of Revenue said in a notification.

The duty imposed is in the range of $0.13 per sqm to $0.77 per sqm.

DGTR had stated that plates have been exported to India from these countries below their normal value, which has resulted in dumping, consequently impacting the domestic industry.

The imports of these plates increased to 16.32 million sqm during the period of investigation (July 2018 to March 2019) from eight million sqm in 2015-16.

The product is used in the printing industry for transferring data as an image (dot patterns or text) on to paper or on tin sheets or poly films.

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In a separate notification, the Department of Revenue said it has imposed provisional anti-dumping duty of up to $150.80 per tonne on aniline imported from China for six months.

In international trade parlance, dumping happens when a firm exports an item to another country at a rate lower than the price of that product in its domestic market.

Dumping impacts the price of that product in the exporting country, hitting margins and profits of manufacturing firms.

According to global trade norms, a country is allowed to impose tariffs on such dumped products to provide a level-playing field to domestic manufacturers. The duty is imposed only after a thorough investigation by a quasi-judicial body, like DGTR in India.

In its probe, the directorate has to conclude if the dumped products are impacting domestic industries.

The imposition of anti-dumping duty is permissible under the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime.

The duty is aimed at ensuring fair trading practices and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers vis-a-vis foreign producers and exporters.

India is one of the most attractive markets for global producers due to its large middle-class population. China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam are the key trading partners of India.