DGTR Streamlines Registration of Interested Parties in Investigation Process

[DGTR Trade Notice No. 11/2018 dated 10 September 2018]

Subject: Streamlining of Investigation Process - Registration of interested Parties.

Rule 6 (4) of the Anti-Dumping Rules, inter-alia, states that the Designated Authority may call for any information and such information shall be furnished by such persons in writing within 30 days from the date of receipt of the notice or within such extended period as the Designated authority may allow on sufficient cause being shown. In pursuance thereof, the Designated Authority has been granting 40 days' time period to all interested parties from the date of publication of the initiation notice to file their responses.

2. A Trade Notice No. 1/2012 dated 9^th January 2012 was issued requiring that a request must be filed within 15 days of publication of a notice of initiation of investigation for inclusion of any party to an investigation as an interested party. A list of interested parties shall be maintained by the Designated Authority within 21 days of the publication of notice of initiation. Any requests at a later stage to this effect shall not be entertained.

3. However, it is noted that some of the interested parties file their requests for registration much beyond the prescribed period. Further, sometimes information/ data is filed with the Authority during the last stages of the investigation. Considering that an investigation has to be completed within a prescribed time frame, any late submission has an adverse impact on the investigation process, which needs to be completed expeditiously. In view of above, it is considered necessary to streamline the process of registration of interested parties and also their participation during the investigation. The revised procedure is detailed as under:

(i) Where a party is interested for participation in an investigation, such party shall, in writing, request the Authority to include it as an interested party within 40 (forty) days of initiation of investigation or such extended period as may be allowed by the Authority. Any request at a later stage for registration as an interested party shall not be entertained.

(ii) All requests for registration shall be sent at the e-mail id dgad.india@gov.in. All e-mails shall include the following details:

Name and Designation of the Officer applying

Contact Phone Numbers

Contact E-Mail id

Name and Address of the Entity, on whose behalf the registration is being sought

Details of Investigation & PUC/Countries

Whether Domestic Producer/ Importer/ User/ Exporter/ Association

If represented by any Law Firm, details thereof.

All physical requests for registration giving aforesaid information shall be made at following address:

Ms. Arti Bangia

Deputy Director

4th Floor, Jeevan Tara Building, Directorate General of Trade Remedies Department of Commerce

New Delhi 110001

(iii) An interested party is also obliged to file its questionnaire response in the prescribed formats within the timeline prescribed by the Authority or the extended timeline prescribed by the Authority for filing the questionnaire response. Where an interested party files its questionnaire response within the prescribed timelines, such entity shall be deemed to be registered as an interested party with the Authority, even if it has not submitted a written request specifically for registration as an interested party.

(iv) In case, an interested party which has registered itself with the Authority within the timelines prescribed in clause (i) above, but does not file a questionnaire response, this shall not prevent such interested party from participating in other stages of the investigation by filing legal submissions, attending public hearing, filing disclosure comments etc. However, the Designated Authority may grant more weightage to the submissions made by such interested party, which has filed the duly prescribed questionnaire response as it allows the Authority to verify the authenticity of the data/information submitted to the Authority by corroborating the same with the facts during verification.

(v) A list of interested parties shall be maintained by the Designated Authority and placed in the public file within 80 days of the publication of notice of initiation. All the interested parties are advised to follow the time-lines stipulated in an investigation for filing the submissions.

(vi) If a party has neither registered itself with the authority within the timelines prescribed in clause (i) above nor filed any questionnaire response, such party shall not be allowed to participate further in subsequent stages of the investigation.

4. Notwithstanding anything contained above, the Authority reserves the right to include any other entity as interested party if it is in the larger interest of the investigation impacting the findings in any way.

5. This Trade Notice shall apply with immediate effect to all the cases of Trade Remedy Investigations initiated on or after 1oth September 2018. This Trade Notice supersedes any previous instructions or Trade Notice, if any, issued by the Authority in regard to the subject matter of this Trade Notice.

No. 04/18/2018-DGAD