India tops anti-dumping investigations, says WTO

NEW DELHI: Amid global downturn, India initiated the highest number of 42 anti-dumping investigations, followed by Brazil and China, between July and December, 2008, according to a WTO report.

At the global level, the number of initiations of new anti-dumping investigations showed a 17 per cent increase during the second half of calendar 2008, compared with the corresponding period of 2007.

On an yearly basis, there were 208 initiations of new anti-dumping investigations in 2008, as compared to 163 in 2007 and 202 in 2006, the report said.

Countries initiate anti-dumping investigations to see whether their domestic industries have been hurt because of surge in cheap imports. As a counter, the countries impose the anti-dumping duties within the multilateral regime of the World Trade Organisation.

While the step is WTO-compliant, the global trade regulator has not been happy with more and more companies resorting to these measures.

Affected by recession in major economies, the global trade is expected to shrink by nine per cent nine per cent, according to a WTO assessment.

The report said China, Colombia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ukraine, which did not report new initiations for July -- December 2007, reported new initiations for the second semester of 2008.