India’s exports show resilience despite mounting anti-dumping duties

India’s exports show resilience despite mounting anti-dumping duties, according to a report by the World Trade Centre-Mumbai.

An analysis of India’s foreign trade in 48 products shows that our exports remain resilient despite foreign countries imposing anti-dumping duties on these products.

India’s export of these 48 products to the countries that imposed anti-dumping duties grew 44% from $178 million in January- May 2020 to $257 million by January-May 2021. In January-May 2019, which was the period before the pandemic, India’s exports of these 48 products stood around $178 million. Most of these products belong to the broad categories of plastics, steel, textile and organic chemicals.

USA, Turkey, Brazil, China, Argentina, European Union and South Korea are the top seven countries that imposed anti-dumping duties on Indian products as of 2021. Under the norms of World Trade Organization (WTO), a member country can impose anti-dumping duty on imports of a product if the exporter sells the product at an unfairly low price that causes injury to the domestic industry in the importing country.

“Organic chemicals and iron and steel products are the major commodities that face anti-dumping duties in foreign countries. It is welcome that India’s exports of these goods have not been much affected by the anti-dumping duties of the importing countries. If the government includes organic chemicals and iron and steel in the RoDTEP scheme, it will further stimulate exports of these goods,” said Vijay Kalantri, Chairman, World Trade Centre-Mumbai.

Specifically, India’s export of six organic chemical products to China, which imposed anti-dumping duties on these products, recovered from $20.3 million in January-May 2020 to $26.3 million by January-May 2021, which is close to the pre-pandemic level export of $28.78 million (during January-May 2019).

Similarly, India’s export of a range of steel and plastic products to the USA grew from $30 million in January-May 2020 to $33 million by January-May 2021, which is higher than even the pre-pandemic level of $28 million during January-May 2019). The USA has imposed anti-dumping duties on India’s steel bars, steel wires, polyethylene films and other related products.

On the other hand, India’s export of a range of synthetic yarn and fibre to Turkey, which imposed anti-dumping duty on these products, grew from $90 million in January-May 2020 to $150 million during January-May 2021. This is far higher than the pre-pandemic level export of $45 million during (January-May 2019).

South Korea is the only major country to which our exports have suffered adversely because of anti-dumping duty. South Korea imposed anti-dumping duty on India’s stainless steel bars, PET films (a kind of product used in plastics manufacturing) and certain organic chemicals. India’s export of these goods to South Korea halved from $14 million in January-May 2019 to $7 million in January-May 2020 and to $6.5 million in January-May 2021.

Export of a range of glass, graphite electrodes and steel products to the European Union grew from $16 million in January-May 2020 to $24 million during the same period in the current year, although it is far less than the pre-pandemic level of $44 million (January-May 2019).