Anti-Dumping Duties

An anti-dumping duty is a protectionist tariff that a domestic government imposes on foreign imports that are believed to be priced below fair market value, a practice known as dumping in international trade.

Dumping is the practice of selling a product in a foreign market at an unfairly low price (lower than the product’s normal value in its home market) in order to gain a competitive advantage over other suppliers.
Dumping is done to gain access to the foreign market and eliminate competition. It creates a monopoly in the market.

Anti-dumping duty is imposed to protect local businesses and markets from unfair competition by foreign imports.

The imposition of anti-dumping duty is a legitimate trade remedial measure under the World Trade Organization’s Anti-Dumping Agreement.
- It allows the government of the affected country to take legal action against the dumping country as long as there is evidence of genuine material injury to industries in the domestic market.
In other cases, the WTO intervenes to prevent anti-dumping measures.

Anti-dumping measures in India are administered by the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), an attached office of the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
- DGTR conducts the investigation and makes recommendations to the Government for imposition of anti-dumping measures.
Such duty is finally levied by the Ministry of Finance.

According to a recent study, the non-implementation of the recommended anti-dumping duties has resulted in an annual economic loss of ₹11,938 crore to the domestic industry, whereas the imposition of these levies could generate an additional ₹28,540 crore annually in forex by reducing imports.
The study was done by C-DEP Research (an independent think tank based in New Delhi) and Centre for WTO Studies.
- The Centre for WTO Studies was set up by the Department of Commerce, Government of India in 1999 as a permanent repository of WTO negotiations-related knowledge and documentation.

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