EU to impose anti-dumping duties on Indian steel

Just when the India-European Union free trade agreement was narrowing down to duty on wine and opening up of the insurance sector

Just when the India-European Union free trade agreement was narrowing down to duty on wine and opening up of the insurance sector,the Indian steel industry has asked the government to protest against anti-dumping duties on their exports to Europe.

They have been supported by steel ministrys economic research unit ERU. The unit has cautioned that the European Commission will release an action plan to revive the European steel industry. It may include subsidies and strong trade actions to reduce or eliminate competition from imports,especially from the developing nations, its advisory notes. This will be a piquant situation as Indian companies,including Tata Steel,operates from both Europe and India.

Incidentally,on Tuesday,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that steps were needed to push steel production volumes in India that is now at less than 80 million tonnes every year. The government expects to raise the volume to 280 million tonnes by 2025,a CAGR of 13.35 per cent.

Eurofer,the apex body of European steel makers is planning to initiate anti-dumping and subsidy countervailing cases against import of stainless steel long products and galvanised sheets of which India is a major exporter to the EU. The European steel companies are still in the middle of a deep slowdown and are reeling under excess capacity of 60 million tonnes. Given the intensity of the crisis in the EU region,there are talks of nationalisation or temporary government management of major steel mills there,for example ILVA of Italy, the policy advisory body said. In response to the ArcelorMittal plan to close two key facilities in France,the countrys government has warned of nationalising the facility.

The possibilities of such measures from Europe are high,it said. Since India has filed some cases against Europe-produced steel,The EU steel industry may be looking for some retaliatory measures. It is also a matter of concern that that the EC may adopt non-tariff barriers involving environmental issues, the steel policy advisory body reasoned. It said that in the recent past trade action were taken against Indian steel products in Indonesia and Thailand and the steel ministry was unaware of it and came to know about it only after their respective trade actions were notified.