Posted on 31 Aug 2023
To control surging steel imports from China into India, the Indian Steel Association (ISA) seeks government intervention and measures to fix trade distortion, ISA secretary general Alok Sahay informs in a media release.
"During April to July, imports of steel from China have gone up by 63% on-year basis," Sahay said. "[Whereas] overall [steel] imports have risen only by 32%."
According to the secretary general, India remains an easy target to dump steel as trade safeguarding in India is a long process, Kallanish notes.
"For India to take any trade measure, it takes a minimum of 15 months’ time due to the prevalence of the lesser duty rule in India," Alok Sahay informed.
"And then some importers look at temporary gains with cheaper imports. Many of these importers do not realise that damage to the domestic sector is long-term, and eventually, they will be hit the worst, when they become import-dependent," he added.
"For a level playing field, trade distortions created by exporting countries have to be countered well in time and effectively," Alok Sahay opined.
Measures like the lesser duty rule of the import-dependent era have lost their relevance and have no place in today’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India), the secretary general said.
If India has to be self-reliant, it has to double its steel production to meet the growing domestic market. These trade distortions may push global investors to protective countries, Sahay added.
"And with most of the large steel-consuming markets like the western world protecting their turf with their schemes of taxation like CBAM, etc., India will be one of the prime dumping destinations unless some exemplary actions are displayed by the government like the way it acted in 2015-16," the secretary general advocated.
"Let’s take the more difficult but definitive route of encouraging investments and not allowing cheaper imports at predatory prices," Alok Sahay concluded.
Source:Kallanish
