India can initiate action against dumping of goods by China

NEW DELHI: The Government can initiate action against dumping of goods by nations like China if a complaint is made with documentary proof that such imports were hurting domestic industry, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry D Purandareswari said as a signatory of the World Trade Organisation, India can resort to anti-dumping actions, anti-subsidies and countervailing measures and emergency protection from imports.

But "there a complaint needs to be lodged with proof that industry has been affected," she said.

Under the three agreements, action can be taken against dumping (selling at an unfairly low price), subsidies and special countervailing duties to offset the subsidies and emergency measures to limit imports temporarily to safeguard domestic industries.

"There are provisions available for action to be initiated against dumping," she said. "Since 2009, adverse effect of large imports from China on domestic industry has been established in two cases of rubber related products/inputs based on investigation and safeguard duty imposed," she said.

Purandareswari said while IIP, the index that measures industrial growth, had been fluctuating over the past few years because of global economic slowdown, it has bounced back with 8.2 per cent growth in October.

Textiles, wearing apparel, rubber and plastic products, electrical machinery and apparatus and furniture all record positive growth in October, she said. The sectors had posted negative growth rate in 2011-12.

"The reasons for decline in the growth can be attributed to both domestic as well as international factors which include Eurozone crisis and decline in external demand moderation in domestic demand, hardening of interest rates, inflationary pressure and rising input costs," she said.

The Minister said National Manufacturing Policy, unveiled in November last year, aims to raise contribution of manufacturing in the GDP to 25 per cent besides making domestic industry globally competitive.

She said state governments should cooperate in helping revive manufacturing sectors as land acquisition, power and other clearances "act as a drag".