• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

Definitive dumping duty on aniline from Japan, US mooted

G. Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, Sept. 6

THE Designated Authority in the Commerce Ministry has recommended imposition of definitive anti-dumping duty on imported aniline from Japan and the US. Aniline is a primary amine compound and a basic organic chemical essential for vital industries such a s drugs, pharmaceuticals, dyes and dye intermediates.

In its recent final findings notification and gazetted subsequently, the authority has held that aniline originating in or exported from Japan and the US has been exported to India below normal value, resulting in dumping with the domestic industry suffe ring ``material injury''. Accordingly, it has recommended that definitive anti-dumping duty be imposed.

For the Japanese firm, Sumitomo Chemicals Co Ltd, the recommended definitive dumping duty is US$0.064 per kg and for all other exporters from Japan is US$0.18. In the case of E.I.duPont de Nemours & Co, the recommended dumping duty is US$0.20, while in o ther exporters of the subject goods from the US the duty is US$0.20.

The authority said aniline was an intermediate for rubber chemicals (vulcanisation, accelerators, antioxidant), dyes, drugs such as analgin, sulpha drugs, photographic chemicals (hydroquinone) and isocyanates (MDI or methylene diphenylene di-isocyanate).

In India, 70 per cent of the production of aniline is used in rubber chemicals, drugs and drug intermediates and dye industries, whereas 80 per cent of production of aniline world over is used in MDI.

The petitioner from the domestic industry includes Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd (HOCL), Narmada Chematur Petro Chemicals and Anirox Pigments Ltd. The authority also highlighted the fact that some interested parties importing the subject goods have arg ued that the increase in import duty on aniline would trigger increase in prices of drugs, pharmaceuticals, dyes and dye intermediates, rubber chemicals which would have an adverse effect on exports. But the authority held that fair competition in the In dian market would not be reduced by the anti-dumping measure, especially if the levy of the anti-dumping duty is restricted to an amount necessary to redress the injury to the domestic industry.

Duty on Trimethoprim: In another notification issued on August 31, the authority has also recommended imposition of provisional anti-dumping duty on imported Trimethoprim (TMP) from China. TMP is an organic chemical and is a bulk anti-bacterial pharmaceu tical ingredient directly used in formulation.

The petition has been filed by Alpha Drugs India Ltd, Patiala and Inventaa Chemicals Ltd, Hyderabad alleging dumping of TMP originating in or exported from China and the petitioners alone account for 73.41 per cent of the total production in the period o f investigation and 81.46 per cent of the production in combination with their supporter IPCA Labs as per production data submitted in the petition.

The authority found in its preliminary probe that the quantum of import from China has gone up steeply in 1999-2000 (up to December 1999) over 1998-99 and the share of China in total imports was 94.2 per cent, 100 per cent and 97.8 per cent in 1997-98, 1 998-99 and 1999-2000, respectively.

As China and India remain the single largest producer, the excessive import of TMP from China has exerted downward pressure on selling price of the domestic industry which has witnessed decline in selling price by about 35 per cent. The extant price of T MP in the country is insufficient to recover the full costs and is significantly below the notified prices by the Government under the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO).

In the light of these findings, the authority has recommended imposition of preliminary dumping duty on imported TMP from China; accordingly, imported TMP from Sini Aust Joint Venture, Shanxi Guangyao Fine Chemical Co Ltd, Shanxi would attract provisiona l dumping duty of US$3.26 per kg and for China Jiangsu International Economic Technical Corporation, Nanjing and all other exporters from China would have to fork out a provisional dumping duty of US$3.26, the authority added.