Anti-dumping duties can help India save Rs 28,540 crore annually: C-DEP report

New Delhi [India], May 26 (ANI): Enforcing anti-dumping duties on products currently under government evaluation could help India save around Rs 28,540 crore annually in foreign exchange and support domestic investments worth Rs 70,000 crore, according to a report released by the Center for Development and Economic Policy Research (C-DEP) and the Centre for WTO Studies.
The report, titled "Impact of Anti-Dumping Duties in India", examined the impact of anti-dumping duties on downstream costs, inflation, MSMEs, domestic manufacturing capacity and investments.
The report was released on Tuesday by Pritam Banerjee, Head, Center for WTO Studies, Ministry of Commerce during a roundtable discussion attended by leaders from sectors including chemicals, polymers, textiles and other manufacturing industries.
According to the report, several domestic industries have been significantly affected by dumped imports, particularly from China and other countries.
Anti-dumping duties are WTO-compliant trade remedy measures used globally by governments to protect domestic industries from predatory pricing by foreign exporters selling products below their home market prices.
The report estimated that economic losses from dumped imports across 33 studied products currently stand at around Rs 1.54 lakh crore and could rise to between Rs 2.68 lakh crore and Rs 2.70 lakh crore by 2030.
It added that jobs at risk could increase from around 24,000 currently to nearly 38,000-42,000 by 2030 due to import-driven market distortions.
The study stated that anti-dumping duties have very limited impact on consumer inflation and downstream costs.
Analysis of 56 Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR)-recommended cases where duties were not implemented showed that the median impact on final consumer prices would have been just 0.023 per cent, while more than 91 per cent of cases would have seen price impact below 0.10 per cent.
The report further noted that inflation contribution from 21 pending anti-dumping duty products would remain below 0.01 percentage points even under a conservative 50 per cent pass-through assumption.
According to the report, non-implementation of anti-dumping duties has disproportionately impacted MSMEs, leading to shutdowns in sectors such as sublimation-transfer paper, phone back covers and Nylon Filament Yarn.
At the same time, sectors where timely anti-dumping duties were implemented, including cable ties, ceramic ware and vacuum flasks, witnessed continued operations, production expansion and fresh investments by MSMEs.
The report also stated that India's use of anti-dumping duties remains moderate compared to several other countries.
It said the average duration of anti-dumping duties in India stands at 6.97 years, lower than the global average of 11.19 years.
The study added that countries such as the United States and China have imposed much higher duty rates, in some cases reaching as high as 632 per cent.
The report concluded that timely implementation of anti-dumping duties recommended by DGTR would help protect domestic manufacturing capacity, reduce import dependence, support industrial investments and strengthen India's economic resilience over the long term. (ANI)