NEW DELHI: Projecting the current anti-dumping duty as ineffective to curb cheap Chinese imports, a key parliamentary panel on Thursday said the dumping has led to closure of many business units in the country, especially in the MSME sector, and has resulted in loss of employment.
In the solar sector alone, the panel’s report notes, nearly two lakh jobs have been lost due to dumping of cheap Chinese solar panels. Cheap Chinese dumping has also decimated India’s export capability in the sector.
“It is disheartening to note that India was one of the major exporters of solar products during 2006-2011 to countries such as Germany, France and Italy, before China started dumping their products at the cost of Indian manufacturers. Presently, the exports from India have been decimated and brought to a standstill,” the report said.
The committee asked the government to take a strong note of such dumping. Early this month, the Directorate General of Trade Remedies has recommended imposing 25 per cent duty on solar cells imported from China and Malaysia for next two years.
About 50 per cent of India’s toy industry has been badly affected by imports of finished toys from China and traditional toy-making skills are being lost with artisans shifting to other vocations. On the steel sector, nothing has been done to revise or rationalise the anti-dumping duty imposed, the report said. Around 75-80 per cent of Chinese steel products are covered by the country’s anti-dumping duties, but there was an increase of eight per cent in import of these steel products.