New Delhi, March 9 The Designated Authority in the Commerce Ministry has recommended imposition of provisional anti-dumping duty on import of flax fabrics from China and Hong Kong, China, following completion of a preliminary inquiry.
Flax fabric is woven fabric with more than 30 per cent flax content and flax and linen are synonymous and the word ‘flax’ is also known as ‘linen’. It is also quite often used as in generic term to describe a class of woven bed, bath, table and kitchen textiles because traditionally flax was widely used for towels and sheets.
Following a petition from Jaya Shree Textiles (a unit of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd) and backed by seven other manufacturers including a few from the textile hub Karur in Tamil Nadu, the Authority set off the preliminary probe. But the Trade & Industry Department of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administration (HKSARG) demurred to this, rejecting the allegations of the petitioner against Hong Kong.
Its contention that Jaya Shree Textiles failed to provide sufficient evidence to justify the initiation of the anti-dumping investigation against Hong Kong was not accepted by the Authority. The Authority, on its part, pronounced that the Trade Department of HKSARG should have substantiated the observations with evidence/fact under their control instead of mere assertions and proceeded with the probe.
In its conclusion of inquiry, the Authority has found that the margin of dumping in respect of each of the subject country is more than 2 per cent and the volume of imports from each country is also more than 3 per cent. Moreover, the subject goods have been imported from China, Hong Kong, China under the same tariff classification and the Authority found that the imported subject goods are commercial substitutes of the domestically produced flax fabrics. It further found that there is a single market for the subject goods where dumped imports from subject countries compete directly with the subject goods produced by domestic industry.
In deference to the lesser duty followed, the Authority recommends imposition of provisional anti-dumping duty equal to the lesser of margin of dumping and margin of injury, so as to remove the injury to the domestic industry in respect of all imports originating in or exported from China and Hong Kong, China.
Accordingly, for flax fabric exported by China to India, the provisional anti-dumping duty is the difference between Rs 204.89 per metre and the landed value of the subject goods, while in the case of Hong Kong exporters, the anti-dumping duty is the difference between Rs 205.52 per metre and the landed value of the subject goods.
Source : Business Line