The commerce ministry’s investigation arm DGTR has recommended an anti-dumping duty of USD 422 per tonne on Chinese drawer sliders to guard MSME units.

In its findings, the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has concluded that ‘Telescopic Channel Drawer Slider’ has been exported to India at a price below the normal value, resulting in dumping.

The imports are also undercutting the prices of the domestic industry, the DGTR has said in a notification.

“The authority recommends imposition of anti-dumping duty on the imports,” it said.

The directorate had “suo-motu” initiated the probe against the alleged dumping of this product to guard micro, small & medium enterprise (MSME) units against cheap imports from the neighbouring country.

Usually, anti-dumping investigations are initiated based on an application filed by domestic producers, but since the fragmented industries did not have the know-how of the procedures involved in the trade remedy probe, the directorate carried out the investigation on its own.

Imports of these sliders from China have increased to 46,276 tonnes in 2022-23 from 17,436 tonnes in 2019-20.

The finance ministry takes the final decision to impose duties.

Anti-dumping probes are conducted by countries to determine whether domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in cheap imports.

As a countermeasure, they impose these duties under the multilateral regime of Geneva-based World Trade Organization (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 various countries, including China.