DGAD calls off anti-dumping investigation on non-woven fabric against 5 nations

The Dollar Business Bureau

The DGAD has terminated the anti-dumping investigation on non-woven fabric originating in or exported from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and China PR as it found no sufficient cause of material injury due to the dumping to the domestic industry.

The investigation into the dumping of non-woven fabric by these 5 nations was initiated in June 2016. The petition was filed by M/s Global Nonwovens and the period of investigation was between July 2015 to March 2016.

In its findings published via notification no: 14/23/2015-DGAD dated September 2, 2017, the DGAD states the following reasons for terminating the investigation.

1. The product Non-Woven Fabric has been exported to India from the subject countries is not below its normal value except in two cases. Therefore, the causal link required under the Anti dumping rules is missing.
2. The price undercutting from all the subject countries is negative.
3. The Domestic Industry (DI) has provided data only for the 9 months of its performance wherein very limited information is available for “best utilization of raw materials”, “best utilisation of utilities”, “best utilization of production capacities”, as required under Annexure III of the Indian AD Rules.
4. DI is suffering injury during Period of Investigation (POI) could be due to teething problems in the initial stage of setting up a new industry and not necessarily due to dumped imports.
5. POI period is of nine months after commencement of commercial production, which is too short to draw definitive conclusion on causal links between dumped imports from subject countries and injury suffered by DI. The performance of DI is likely to improve once initial teething problems are taken care of.
6. It was also brought to the notice of the Authority that the ownership structure of the DI changed subsequent to the POI due to merger with parent company. This may have some impact on cost and efficiency of the applicant.

Countries start anti-dumping probe to determine whether their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in below-cost imports. As a counter measure, they impose duties under the multilateral regime of WTO. 

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 has already imposed anti-dumping duty on several products to tackle cheap imports from some countries, including China.

According to a WTO report, India, US and Brazil were the leading initiators of anti-dumping investigations in 2015.