NEW DELHI: The government has initiated as many as 214 anti-dumping investigations up to December last year against China, with which India has a huge trade deficit, Parliament was informed today.
The trade deficit (difference between imports and exports) with China has increased to USD 63.12 billion in 2017-18 from USD 51 billion in the previous fiscal.
Minister of State for Commerce and Industry C R Chaudhary in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha said that the directorate general of trade remedies (DGTR) has initiated a total of 888 anti-dumping investigations against imports from various countries.
These investigations mainly pertain to China, EU, Korea, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, US, Indonesia, Japan and Malaysia, he said.
"Out of 888 investigations initiated by India, duty has been imposed in 656 against various countries and out of which 167 were from China," he added.
After China, maximum probes were started against EU and Korea (65 each). It was followed by Chinese Taipei (62), Thailand (49), the US (40), Indonesia (39), Japan (39) and Malaysia (34) as on December 31, 2017, he said.
Countries carry out anti-dumping probe to determine whether their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in cheap imports. As a counter measure, they impose duties under the multilateral regime of WTO.
The duty is aimed at ensuring fair trading practises and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers with regard to foreign producers and exporters.