India has imposed the commerce ministry recommended anti-dumping duty on digital printing plates from Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and Vietnam. The duty has been imposed for five years and aims to guard domestic manufacturers from cheap imports from these countries.
The Commerce Ministry’s investigation arm Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) recommended the duty after its probe concluded that there is a substantial increase in imports of digital offset printing plates from these countries in absolute terms. It has also concluded that the plates have been exported to India from these countries below their normal value, which has resulted in dumping and consequently impacting the domestic industry.
“The anti-dumping duty imposed under this notification shall be effective for a period of five years (unless revoked, superseded or amended earlier),” the Department of Revenue said in a notification. The duty imposed is in the range of USD 0.13 per sqm to USD 0.77 per sqm.
The alleged dumping probe was carried out by the DGTR on an application filed by Technova Imaging Systems for imposition of the duty on imports of these plates coming from Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The imports of these plates have increased to 16.32 million sqm during the period of investigation covers (July 2018 to March 2019) from 8 million sqm in 2015-16. The duty is aimed at ensuring fair trade practices and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers vis-à-vis foreign producers and exporters.
