December 02, 2008

Industrialists call for 35% AD duty on Chinese goods

Exim News Service reported that industrialists have called upon the union government to impose a 35% anti dumping duty on capital goods imported from China to offset the indirect subsidy that the Chinese provide their industry by way of a fixed exchange rate.

A delegation comprising Mr AM Naik chairman of Larsen & Toubro, Mr Dilip Chenoy director general Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers and Mr Ravi Kant MD of TATA Motors met union finance minister Mr P Chidambaram and explained to him the need for such a measure to counter the slowdown in industrial production.

The industrialists stressed that the industry had been hit by the appreciation of the rupee against the dollar, and had seen its cost competitiveness falling steeply due to the fixed rate of exchange of the Chinese currency against the dollar. They calculated that this worked out to a 30% indirect subsidy for manufacturers in China.

The meeting assumes significance against the backdrop of the industry growing by just 5.3% in January 2008 as compared to 11.6% in January 2007. The growth rate for the ten months of 2007-08 works out to 8.7% as compared to 11.2% in the same period of 2006-07.