India recommends anti-dumping duty on Bangladesh jute products

The India’s Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) that works under the Indian federal commerce ministry has recommended anti-dumping duty on certain jute products from Bangladesh and Nepal. Currently, under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement, Bangladesh jute and jute goods have zero-duty benefit on export to the Indian market. After investigation, DGAD has recommended following duty on jute products:

• Bangladesh – $19.30 – $351.72 per ton
• Nepal – $8.18 – $38.90 per ton

The products include yarn, hessian fabric and sacking bags. As per the data from Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association, export from Bangladesh is more than 1.10 lakh tonnes of jute yarn to India a year. Apart from jute yarn, Bangladesh exports raw jute and other jute goods. Bangladesh’s jute sector involves about 40 lakh farmers and about two lakh workers, processes more than nine lakh tonnes of raw jute out of the average local production of 13.5 lakh tonnes a year. Out of which, around 90 percent of jute goods are shipped abroad. As per the data from Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association, Jute yarn and twine account for 65 percent of the sector’s annual export receipts of over $850 million. The purpose of recommending anti-dumping duty was to ‘prevent harm’ through ‘unfair trade practices’ and to create a ‘fair and open competition’ in the Indian market. This recommendation came into picture, after 17 Indian jute mills having 42% of the domestic market share, has filed petition pointing to the fact that Bangladesh jute producers are selling their products in India at a price lower than their prices in their own country. This is because, Bangladesh is providing a 10% cash subsidy for boosting jute exports and that is why the Bangladesh producers could sell their products in India at rates lower than their own domestic prices. India is yet to finalized and implement the same.