The Indian government will seek bilateral talks with Japan to resolve the latter’s complaints made to the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Indian steel import tariff barriers, a senior government official said on Wednesday, February 8.
The official stated that the move to initiate talks and resolve the dispute with Japan on a bilateral basis instead of at the WTO has received a boost since India’s Ministry of Steel has started unwinding the minimum import price (MIP) regime in relation to various steel product categories. He added that the main complaint of Japan before the WTO related to the MIP.
With the Ministry of Steel withdrawing 19 steel product categories from the MIP earlier this week and expected to progressively exclude more products from the tariff barrier, having maintained that the MIP was just a temporary measure, Indian government officials are confident that the dispute with Japan can be resolved bilaterally.
According to the government official, the Ministry of Steel will progressively bring steel products within the ambit of antidumping duties, which are more WTO-compliant and more acceptable to countries exporting steel to India. The bulk of product categories imported into India such as hot rolled coil, cold rolled coil and wire rod are already subject to antidumping levies and so this should not be a major issue in talks with Japan, the official indicated.
At the same time, as regards galvanized plain and galvanized corrugated sheets which have been withdrawn from the MIP, domestic producers have not been able to submit sufficient data to back their claims of dumping of these products in India, he added.