Centre wants farmers to form associations to fight dumping

New Delhi, April 16: THE government has advised the farmers and those associated with the farm sector to form associations to represent their grievances to the anti-dumping cell to fight against the dumping of agricultural products.

‘‘There have been no cases of dumping of agriculture products so far. But it would be difficult for us to take up the problems of dumping of agriculture products individually by small players without they forming a group or association’’, director general of anti-dumping and allied duties (DGAD) LV Saptarishi told reporters here.

Meanwhile, commerce ministry officials said that the move was assuming significance due to reports of surge in import of agriculture products in some places of the country after removal of quantitative restrictions (QRs) from April 1 this year.

Complaints of flooding of Thai and Chinese rice have been received besides alleged dumping of edible oils in certain states like Bihar, the officials said. They said as per prevalent rules, the DGAD can act on a petition from a farmer or any producer or manufacturer if he individually accounts for 25 per cent of the total domestic production of that particular item.

The government has constituted a group of lawyers and officials of DGAD and industrial councils to go into the details of the present anti-dumping rules with a view to strengthen it, officials said.

The present anti-dumping rules in India are as per guidelines in Article 6 of the WTO. The provision allows for changes which India has made use of in the past when it shifted from the lesser duty regime to imposing duties up to the highest permitted level of dumping margins.

‘‘Earlier the amount of provisional anti-dumping duty recommended was the difference between the dumping and the injury margin whichever was lower. However, now duty can be imposed up to the highest level of the dumping margin," they said.

The officials said that the DGAD had also taken up the issue of delay in notification of provisional anti-dumping duties with the department of revenue. "While the final findings of the DGAD have to be notified within three months, there is no such restriction in the case of provisional duties. The DGAD is seeking some time-limit within which such provisional duties recommended by DGAD have to be notified," they said.

The DGAD is currently strengthening its investigative machinery and has hired more officials for the purpose. "We have taken more people to speed up investigations. However, the total strength is still very minuscule compared to around 250 odd people employed in the US and other countries," they added. (PTI)