India imposes anti-dumping duty on four Chinese chemicals

New Delhi: India has imposed anti-dumping duty on four Chinese chemicals so far this month to guard domestic players from unfairly priced imports from the neighbouring country.

These duties were imposed on - PEDA (used in herbicide); Acetonitrile (used in pharma sector); Vitamin -A Palmitate; and and Insoluble Sulphur.

In separate notifications, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, Department of Revenue, said that the duty imposed will be levied for a period of five years on imports of these chemicals.

The duties were imposed following recommendations for the same from the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), an arm of the commerce ministry.

While on PEDA, the duty will range from $1,305.6 to $2017.9 per tonne, a duty of up to USD 481 per tonne has been imposed on Acetonitrile imported from China, Russia and Taiwan.

Similarly, the government has imposed a duty of up to Rs 1,794 ($20.87) per Kg duty on Vitamin -A Palmitate imported from China, European Union and Switzerland; and up to Rs 30,780 ($358) per tonne on import of Insoluble Sulphur, which is used in tyre industry, and imported from China and Japan.

Anti-dumping probes are conducted by countries to determine whether domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in cheap imports.

As a countermeasure, they impose these duties under the multilateral regime of the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation (WTO). Both India and China are members of the multilateral organisations, which deals with global trade norms.

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 taking steps to boost domestic manufacturing and cut imports from China as the country's trade deficit with China widened to Rs 8,52,911 crore ($99.2 billion) during 2024-25.

In the last fiscal, India's exports to China contracted 14.5 per cent to Rs 22,501 crore ($14.25 billion) as against Rs 1,43,219 crore ($16.66 billion) in 2023-24. The imports, however, rose by 11.52 per cent in 2024-25 to Rs 9,75,283 crore ($113.45 billion) against Rs 8,74,430 crore ($101.73 billion) in 2023-24.