India’s Directorate General for Trade Remedies (DGTR) has officially recommended a ‘temporary tax of 12 percent on imports of flat steel products,’ also knows as safeguard duty, for a period of 200 days, a government official said on Wednesday, March 19, quoting from a government notification.
“The authority considers that a provisional safeguard duty of 12 percent will be appropriate to eliminate the serious injury and threat thereof to the domestic industry," the DGTR said in the notification.
The DGTR has further invited comments on its findings within 30 days, following which there would be an oral hearing before making a final decision, the notice said.
The recommendations covered products like hot rolled coils, sheets and plates, HR plate mill plates, cold rolled coils and sheets, metallic coated steel coils and sheets, both profiled or not, and colour coated coils and sheets, whether profiled or not.
The DGTR in the notification noted, “There has been a recent, sudden, sharp and significant increase in the imports of these products into India, thereby causing and threatening to cause serious damage to the domestic industry and producers of these products.”
It also noted that “there exist critical circumstances, where any delay in application for provisional safeguard measures would cause damage which would be difficult to repair and that there is a necessity for immediate application of provisional safeguard measures”.
In December last year, the government launched an investigation to consider if it should impose a safeguard duty or a temporary tax to curtail steel imports.
Domestic steel producers had sought imposition of a 25 percent safeguard duty on steel imports.