The Hindu Business Line : Varsity offers to help industry on anti-dumping laws

INDIAN industry needs to invest in multi-disciplinary legal research and training to get a better understanding of the anti-dumping law and procedures, under the WTO agreement.

Seeking greater industry-academia-civil society collaboration to address this issue, the Vice-Chancellor of the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Prof. B.S. Chimni, offered to involve the law institute in this work in collaboration with industry.

Delivering the keynote address at an interactive session on `Anti-dumping issues', jointly organised by the Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties and FICCI, in cooperation with Capexil, EEPC, Indian Plastics Federation and The Plastics Export Promotion Council here today, Prof. Chimni said industry needs to pay attention to the legal text (of the agreement) itself and discuss the legal strategies, if it wants to have a better grip on the procedural and substantive issues.

He said this was important as India has initiated the maximum number of anti-dumping cases (particularly in chemicals and base metals) before the Disputes Settlement body of the WTO.

India, he pointed out, has been a serious user of anti-dumping mechanism, especially after the removal of Quantitative Restrictions (QRs), following the WTO accord, which lead to dumping of many items by developed nations.

Suggesting that there was ambiguity in the text of the agreement text, he said an alternative interpretation of some of the provisions would open up possibilities for India.

Making a presentation on anti-dumping investigation practices and procedures, Mr A.K. Chowdhury, Director, Ministry of Commerce, said the initiation, investigation and recommendations are carried out by the Designated Authority, which was DGAD, and the imposition and collection of anti-dumping duty and CV duty was done by the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance.

A separate Directorate deals with safeguards in the Finance Ministry, he clarified.

According to Mr Rajiv Jain, Deputy Director in the Ministry, even the judiciary has to be sensitised to anti-dumping cases, as lawyers too need to be educated on these matters. On judicial review of anti-dumping measures, in the case of appeals, he said these came under the purview of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), formerly Cegat.

The measures can also come under the writ jurisdiction of High Courts in the country.

The legal framework for anti-dumping measures in India are built around the Customs Tariff (Amendment) Act, 1995, particularly through Sections 9A, 9B and 9C. Mr Jain said the notification of the Department of Revenue on the final findings of the Designated Authority can be challenged, and an appeal can be filed within 90 days of the date of order under appeal.

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