China Slaps Another Five Years Anti-dumping Duty on India-made Optical Fibre

Chinese commerce ministry’s punitive tariff on single-mode optical fibre imported from India takes effect from August 14 and lasts for five years, with tariffs ranging between 7.4 percent and 30.6 percent depending on the specific Indian manufacturers.

China has extended an anti-dumping tariff on optical fibre made in India, the ministry of commerce said in a notice published on its website on Thursday, 13 August 2020.

The duties will be renewed from Friday and remain in place for five years.

In the announcement, the MOFCOM “…decided to continue to impose anti-dumping duties on imported single-mode optical fibers originating in India from August 14 on the basis of the final review of the investigation results. The implementation period is 5 years”.

Several Indian companies were named in the announcement.

The ministry defined single-mode fibre as a fibre that transmits only a single-mode optical signal within a certain wavelength range.

The extension of the anti-dumping duties comes in the backdrop of the ongoing Sino-India border tension at Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and the cooling of bilateral economic ties.

“The decision came after MOFCOM evaluated the possible damage to Chinese industries if anti-dumping measures are terminated, at the request of the domestic single-mode optical fiber industry on 13 August, 2019,” state media reported.

The Ministry of Commerce began to implement anti-dumping measures on imports of single-mode optical fibers from India in August 2014.

In June 2019, the MOFCOM initiated the final review investigation in response to a domestic industry application, the announcement said.

The Chinese order comes three days after India sought to impose provisional anti-dumping duty on imports of black toner in powder form originating in or exported from China, Malaysia and Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) for six months, a government order issued on Monday said.

The duty on a tonne of black toner would range from $196 for imports from Chinese Taipie, $1,686 for imports from Malaysia and $834 for those originating in or exported from China, it said.

On June 23, New Delhi had slapped anti-dumping duty on certain steel products imported from China, South Korea and Vietnam after an investigation found that these items caused injury to domestic producers.

India-China bilateral trade in the year 2019 decreased by 2.93 percent year on year to reach $92.89 billion.

India’s exports to China decreased by 4.55 percent year-on-year to $17.97 billion, and India’s imports from China also witnessed a drop by 2.54 percent to $74.92 billion, according to data from China’s customs department

India’s trade deficit with China stood at US$ 56.95 billion, a minor year-on-year decline of 1.88 percent.