The government has initiated a probe on alleged dumping of a chemical used in pharmaceutical and agriculture sector from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia.
The commerce ministry's investigation arm -- Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) -- has found "sufficient evidence" of dumping of saturated fatty alcohols from these four countries.
If established in its probe that dumping has caused material injury to domestic players, the DGAD would recommend imposition of anti-dumping duty to the finance ministry which will then take a call on whether to impose the duty or not.
Anti-dumping duties are levied to provide a level playing field to local industry by guarding against cheap below-cost. imports.
The authority "hereby initiates an investigation into the alleged dumping," the DGAD said in a notification.
Saturated fatty alcohols are mainly used for manufacturing of personal and home care products besides pharmaceutical and agriculture related items.
The DGAD is also probing dumping of several other products including certain chemicals, fibres and steel from different countries.
Countries initiate anti-dumping probes to determine if the domestic industry has been hurt by a surge in below-cost imports. As a counter-measure, they impose duties under the multi-lateral WTO regime.
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