Jute goods export: India closes in on slapping fresh punitive duties

India has invited Bangladeshi officials to discuss as New Delhi seeks to protect its mills by imposing yet another bout of safeguard duty on jute products of Dhaka.

Anti-dumping duties are slapped by a country on the imported products that are improperly subsidised and protectionist in nature.

The neighbouring country wants to launch an investigation into the import of jute products from Bangladesh in an attempt to impose countervailing duty on it.

The subsidised jute products, such as sacks, clothes and yarn, will come under the investigation, officials said.

Director General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) of India has recently invited Bangladesh to a consultative meeting in this connection, they said.

Consultation is a prior condition or first step towards starting investigation if a country wants to impose countervailing duty on export products of other country, they added.

The move has been taken following the application of the Indian Jute Mills Association. The millers' lobbyist group alleged that the import of the subsided jute goods from Bangladesh is affecting their local products.

Dr Mostafa Abid Khan, member of state-run Bangladesh Tariff Commission (BTC), however, found the claim of the Indian jute millers to be illogical, saying the allegation has no evidence.

"We have to go for consultation as per desire of India," he said.

However, the consultation time has been deferred from the tentative date in mid-May following request from the ministry of commerce.

Commerce ministry's World Trade Organisation or WTO cell has sent letters to the Indian authorities through the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, seeking delay in holding the consultation since both countries are under lockdown enforced to slow the spread of lethal coronavirus.

As a WTO member, a country can impose countervailing duty on import of subsidised products from other to offset harm caused to local products.

Industry insiders said jute products exports from Bangladesh have faced setbacks since 2017 after India imposed anti-dumping duty on it.

In April 2017, India imposed anti-dumping duty ranging from $19 to $351.72 a tonne on the import of jute products, including yarn, twine, hessian fabric and sacks from Bangladesh for five years.

Bangladesh annually exports jute and jute products worth around US$ 200 million to India.

Secretary-general of the Bangladesh Jute Mills Association Abdul Barik Khan termed this 'unfortunate' and suggested levying export taxes on raw jute export to India. Raw jute is exempted from anti-dumping duty in India, he added.

He also demanded shipping jute goods via sea ports instead of land ports to stop smuggling.

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