The Indian government will set up a special group to compile details of subsidies offered by countries of origin of large volumes of imports arriving in India, a senior government official said on Tuesday, March 22. First of all, the group will focus on compilation of subsidies offered for exports from China and Southeast Asian nations.
The government official stated that subsidies offered by various exporting countries include subsidies as per World Trade Organization (WTO) norms, fiscal subsidies in the form of loans, grants and export incentives, import duty exemption for raw materials, and equity infusion into producing companies and exchange rate incentives.
The official said that the compilation of subsidies will offer a definitive database for domestic producers of goods including steel to base any complaints of dumping of such products or similar products.
According to the official, the move to set up a specialized group to examine subsidy data from a range of countries was triggered by a similar move by the US government aiming to protect their own domestic industry, including steel mills, from cheap imports.