India’s Ministry of Steel in a communication to its counterparts in the Ministry of Commerce has sought immediate intervention to protect domestic steel producers, including updating of the methodology for calculating antidumping duties on imported steel, government sources said on Friday, June 14.
Since the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), designated to investigate dumping cases and recommend antidumping duties is part of the Ministry of Commerce, the latter should take a comprehensive relook at the process for levying such duties, the sources said, citing the communication sent from the Ministry of Steel to the Ministry of Commerce.
The Ministry of Steel has argued that current antidumping duties have failed to check rising imports of steel products and have not offered sufficient protection to domestic steel producers.
According to the Ministry of Steel, the very basis of calculation of antidumping duties has become irrelevant considering the fact that the “reference price” based on which such duties are levied is calculated on the basis of data pertaining to the July-December 2015 period, the sources said.
Backed by data provided by domestic steel producers, the Ministry of Steel maintained that the input costs of domestic steel production based on which the reference price is determined has itself changed dramatically since 2015 and stated that the Ministry of Commerce should take action so that the DGTR could update the entire process of antidumping duty calculation, the sources added.