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The Finance Ministry has removed existing anti-dumping duty on Barium Carbonate, an inorganic chemical in the form of white powder or granules, imports from China.
This revenue department move of Tuesday comes more than a month after the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) had recommended “immediate ceasing” of anti-dumping duty on Barium Carbonate imports from China.
It maybe recalled that the definitive anti-dumping duty (about $144.82 per tonne) imposed in April 2016 was to end on April 21 this year, but was extended by revenue department till October 20 this year.
Barium Carbonate mainly finds application in purification of brine solution in caustic soda industry. It is also used in the production of hard ferrite ring magnets, television glass shell, lamps and manufacture of heavy clay ceramic products.
An anti-dumping duty is basically a protectionist tariff that a government imposes on foreign imports that are seen to be priced below fair market value. It is levied to correct the trade distortive effect of dumping and establish fair trade.
Reacting to the Finance Ministry move, AS Rao, Chief Executive of Shree Pavan Chemicals & Minerals, told BusinessLine that the removal of anti-dumping duty poses a big problem for domestic industry as it will now pave the way for China to start exporting barium carbonate to Indian industrial buyers (like Gujarat Alkalies, DCM Shriram etc).
“So long as the anti-dumping duty was in place, we did not see any imports from China. Now with the duty getting removed, we fear the domestic industry will find it difficult to survive as we may get swamped by Chinese imports,” Rao said.
Shree Pavan Chemicals & Minerals is one among the four petitioners who together had approached the Directorate General of Trade Remedies for second sunset review investigations of anti-dumping duty imposed on Barium Carbonate imports from China. The others are Amaravathi Chemicals and Fertilisers Pvt Ltd, Kadapa Barium Salts and Rahul Barium Chemicals.
Most of the units involved in manufacture of Barium Carbonate are small and medium-size businesses and, therefore, have little negotiating power with the buyers, who are large industrial houses, say industry observers. One can find several such units around the Baryte (ore used to make Barium Carbonate) mines near Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.
If the large industrial houses that buy Barium Carbonate from these small units turn to Chinese suppliers due to lower prices post the removal of anti-dumping duty, the small-size domestic units will be in trouble, they added.
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