The Hindu Business Line : Mid-term review of dumping duty on Vitamin A begins

THE Designated Authority in the Commerce Ministry has initiated mid-term review of the definitive anti-dumping duty imposed on imported Vitamin A Palmitate originating in or exported from the European Union (EU), Georgia and Singapore.

In an initiation of mid-term review notification, the authority said the investigation would resolve "whether continued imposition of the duty is necessary to offset dumping, whether the injury is likely to continue or recur if the duty was removed or varied or both."

Delineating the grounds for review the authority said one of the exporters from the EU, BASF Ltd, Germany has filed a request through the European Commission, citing changed circumstances and demanding mid-term review of the anti-dumping duty in force.

The applicant notes that the conditions of both dumping and injury have altered substantially requiring a review of the anti-dumping measure in vogue.

The exporter has, among others, claimed that its export price to India is much above its cost of production, as well its selling price in the domestic market and therefore, there is no dumping of the subject goods in the Indian market.

It has also claimed that the landed price of the goods exported from the EU is above the selling price of the domestic industry in India and there is no price undercutting.

The applicant also claims that the DPCO (Drug Price Control Order) price, ie., the maximum selling price of the subject goods in the Indian market as determined by DPCO has been revised downwards since 2003 and the landed value of the imports from the EU is above the DPCO prices, signifying `negative price underselling'.

As such, the applicant contends that no dumping is supervening from the EU and the domestic industry is not suffering any injury on account of the imports from the EU.

The period of investigations for the purpose of this review would be April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2004.

However, injury analysis should cover the years from 2000-01 to 2003-04, the authority said.