India challenges imposition of anti-dumping duty at WTO

16 Mar '09

2 min read

India has challenged a move by the Turkish government to impose anti-dumping duty on import of cotton yarn at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Turkey, which is the second biggest textile importing country from India, imposed the duty in a bid to shield its local producers.

According to Turkish statistics, imports of cotton yarn rose by 63.6 percent in 2005, 46.9 percent in 2006 and 119.7 percent in 2007, and in the first five months of 2008 were 32.1 percent higher than a year earlier, according to a document filed by Turkey at the WTO.

As a result, although total consumption of cotton yarn rose in the period, domestic production fell leading to unemployment in the industry and according to statistics, the market share of imports increased to 12.5 percent from 2.8 percent in 2004.

Turkey in turn took remedial measures under WTO safe guards by imposing an anti-dumping duty of 15-20 percent for three years against the WTO agreed tariff of 5 percent on imports of cotton yarn, mainly to curb imports from India.

While Turkey waived the safeguard tariff for many countries that are not significant suppliers of yarn, it did not do so with regards to India, one of its biggest sources, against which the Government of India has filed a review petition at the WTO.

Egypt has also filed a same type of anti-dumping duty on imported of cotton yarn from India. This decision of the Turkish government has come at a time when most countries are setting up protectionist measures to save their domestic industry.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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