The duty is aimed at ensuring fair trading practices and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers vis-a-vis foreign producers and exporters.

India on Tuesday imposed anti-dumping duty on imports of certain type of steel products from China, Vietnam and Korea for five years with a view to guard domestic manufacturers from cheap imports from these countries.

The duty imposed is in the range of USD 13.07 per tonne to USD 173.1 per tonne on imports of ‘Flat rolled product of steel, plated or coated with alloy of Aluminium and Zinc’ from these three countries.

The duty was imposed after the Commerce Ministry’s investigation arm Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), in its probe, concluded that the product was exported to India by these countries below its associated normal value, which resulted in dumping and in turn impacting domestic players.

“The anti-dumping duty imposed under this notification shall be effective for a period of five years (unless revoked, amended or superseded earlier) from the date of imposition of the provisional anti-dumping duty, that is, October 15, 2019,” the department of revenue said in a notification.

In international trade parlance, dumping happens when a country or a firm exports an item at a price lower than the price of that product in its domestic market.

Dumping impacts the price of that product in the importing country, hitting margins and profits of manufacturing firms.

According to global trade norms, a country is allowed to impose tariffs on such dumped products to provide a level-playing field to domestic manufacturers. The duty is imposed only after a thorough investigation by a quasi-judicial body, such as DGTR, in India.

The imposition of anti-dumping duty is permissible under the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime.

The duty is aimed at ensuring fair trading practices and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers vis-a-vis foreign producers and exporters.