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Government not to target Chinese imports for anti-dumping duty

The government on Thursday said it has no intention to target imports from China for anti-dumping duties as it follows non-discriminatory trade policies against the neighbouring country despite Beijing remaining outside the World Trade Organisation.

"There is no intention on the part of the government to specifically target China for application of anti-dumping measures. The principles and procedures prescribed under the law are fully complied with in the cases involving China as in the cases involving other countries,'' an official booklet released by the directorate general of anti-dumping and allied duties in the commerce ministry said.

India has initiated 38 cases of anti-dumping measures against China out of a total of 87 cases since 1992, as per the data given in the February issue of the commerce ministry publication 'India and the WTO'. The number of cases went up especially since 2000, the crucial run-up year to the removal of the quantitative restrictions as per the WTO mandate. China accounted for 15 cases against a total of 27 since 2000.

However, ''the number of cases against China has got nothing to do with its not being a member of WTO. India has extended the most favoured nation treatment to China, which enjoins upon India the obligation of non-discriminatory treatment of China vis-à-vis other trading partners including WTO members'', the government said in the booklet released by minister of state for commerce and industry Omar Abdullah in New Delhi.

By and large Chinese goods have price advantage mainly due to factors like large-scale production leading to economies of scale, easy and cheaper credit to the state-owned enterprises, export promotion through special economic zones, lower input costs and inflow of goods through unauthorised channels, officials said.

They said the competitiveness of the Indian industry, on the other hand, is undermined by infrastructure bottlenecks, high cost of finance and energy and relatively low production capacity of small scale industries.

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