• The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), under the ministry of commerce, has recommended imposition of anti-dumping duty on imports of hydraulic rock breakers from China, and Korea for five years to protect the domestic industry from cheap inbound shipments.

• The DGTR has recommended the duty after conducting an investigation on the dumped imports of these machines from these two countries.

• In a separate notification, the directorate said anti-dumping has also been recommended on imports of ‘sodium cyanide’ from China, the European Union, Japan, and Korea for five years.

• Sodium cyanide appears as a white crystalline solid, lump solid or powder. A deadly human poison by ingestion. Toxic by skin absorption through open wounds, by ingestion, and by inhalation of dust. Sodium cyanide is a cyanide salt containing equal numbers of sodium cations and cyanide anions. A sodium cyanide solution is commonly used to leach gold from ore.

• The recommended duty on the cyanide was in the range of $13 and $554 per tonne.

• The DGTR has also initiated an alleged dumping probe on a Chinese chemical — PEDA —  used in herbicides.

• While DGTR recommends the duty, the finance ministry takes the final decision to impose the same within three months of the recommendation.

• Countries initiate anti-dumping probes to check if their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in below-cost imports. As a countermeasure, they impose duties within the multilateral regime of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

• Anti-dumping measures are taken to ensure fair trade and provide a level-playing field to the domestic industry. It is not a measure to restrict imports or cause an unjustified increase in the cost of products.

Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR)

• The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) (earlier known as Directorate General of Anti-Dumping & Allied Duties) is an attached office of the department of commerce.

• The Directorate General of Anti-Dumping & Allied Duties (DGAD) was formed in 1997. 

• It was restructured as DGTR in May 2018 by restructuring and re-designing DGAD into DGTR by incorporating all the trade remedial functions — Anti-Dumping Duty (ADD), Countervailing Duty (CVD), Safeguards Duty (SGD), Safeguards Measures (QRs) under a single window framework. 

• Thus, the DGTR was formed by merging of functions of DGAD, Department of Commerce, Directorate General of Safeguards, Department of Revenue and Safeguards (QR) functions of DGFT into its fold.

• The DGTR is a professionally integrated organisation with multispectrum skill sets emanating from officers drawn from different services and specialisations. 

• The DGTR is a quasi-judicial body that independently undertakes investigations before making its recommendations to the central government.

• It is the single national authority for administering all trade remedial measures including anti-dumping, countervailing duties and safeguard measures.

• The DGTR provides a level playing field to the domestic industry against the adverse impact of the unfair trade practices like dumping and actionable subsidies from any exporting country, by using trade remedial methods under the relevant framework of the WTO arrangements, the Customs Tariff Act & Rules and other relevant laws and international agreements, in a transparent and time bound manner. 

• It also provides trade defence support to our domestic industry and exporters in dealing with instances of trade remedy investigations instituted against them by other countries.

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