Posted on 04 Dec 2015
Govt looking at policy response to contain steel imports
Government is looking at a comprehensive policy response as imposition of safeguard duty on steel imports has failed to contain the imports, a top official today said.
Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said that recently the
government imposed a 20 per cent safeguard duty on certain categories of
steel but the the industry continues to feel "stressed" and the imports
actually remains at the same level.
"We have to look at it at a global context. What is the level
of supply? What is the level at which people are actually willing to
bring their prices down to have access to markets and what should be the
instruments by which we will look to address this. So i think, we are
going to looking at in a comprehensive policy response," she told
reporters here.
She said things are being worked out to deal with the surge in imports.
When asked what could be the options other than imposing duties, she said: "it is a work in progress".
Safeguard duty is a WTO-compatible temporary measure that is
brought in for a certain timeframe to avert any damage to a country's
domestic industry from cheap imports.
During the examination of applications of major steel producers
like SAIL, Essar Steel and JSW Steel, the DG Safeguards had found
"prima-facie increased imports (of certain kinds of steel) have caused
or are threatening to cause serious injury to domestic producers..."
Domestic steel producers had complained of a surge in imports
of steel products like hot-rolled steel and other variants from China,
Korea, Japan and Russia.
In June, India had slapped anti-dumping duty of up to USD 316
per tonne on imports of certain steel products from three countries,
including China, to protect domestic producers from below-cost inbound
shipments.
Industry is complaining that despite imposition of these duties, steel imports continue to rise from countries like China.
