India leads world charge against China dumping

Even as Sino-Indian bilateral trade relations gather steam around discussions on a possible Free Trade Agreement between the two Asian giants

Even as Sino-Indian bilateral trade relations gather steam around discussions on a possible Free Trade Agreement FTA between the two Asian giants, India continues to be at the forefront of initiating anti-dumping investigations against China.

While India has been at the forefront in initiating anti-dumping investigations under the WTO, with 455 initiations between 1995 and 2006, China leads the pack among countries that have been at the receiving end with 535 investigations directed against its exports.

As a trend, the expansion of globalisation has resulted in an increase in anti-dumping initiations. In India8217;s case from a low of 21 new initiations in 2004, the number went up to 24 in 2005 and 32 last year. Similar has been the case with China, which attracted 49 investigations in 2004, 55 in 2005 and 68 last year.

8220;China has attracted the maximum attention on anti-dumping not only from us but around the world, as the numbers suggest,8221; a Commerce Ministry official said. 8220;But there is no singular bias against Chinese exports and our investigations strictly conform to the laws laid down under the Customs Act 1975.8221;

The numbers reiterate the fact that irrespective of China8217;s rhetoric on transparency, it continues to be seen as a 8220;dumping exporter8221;. The number of measures applied against China have only increased over the last six years from 29 in 2000 to 37 last year. However, the industry does not believe there is an across-the-board anti-China feeling.

8220;The number of initiations is higher because India is a large market and a very price sensitive one,8221; said Confederation of Indian Industry CII international trade policy head T S Vishwanath. 8220;There is a huge quantum of imports from China but at the same time we have not understood their pricing pattern. Hence, there have been instances where dumping has happened and the fact that none of it has been challenged in WTO proves that it is true.8221;