DGTR under the department of commerce), Ministry of Commerce and Industry has recommended imposing anti dumping duty (ADD) on various papers including decorative base paper used in laminate industry and issued a notification dated 28th September, 2021 with its final findings. The anti-dumping investigation was initiated by the authority based on a complaint filed by ITC Ltd. The authority notes that the domestic industry suffered losses in 2017- 18, when its plant was shut down. However, its profitability improved during 2018-19 but has declined again during the period of investigation of anti dumping initiation.
The products under consideration is a base paper for high pressure (HPL) or low-pressure (LPL) decorative laminates, coating base paper and print base paper, but excluding printed ready-to-use décor Paper. Besides, white/off-white, liner, barrier paper, shuttering base, overlay paper and print base paper (color/white), etc
The DGTR report also pointed out that non-imposition of the anti-dumping duty will adversely and materially impact the indigenous production—while the imposition of the duty will not materially impact the consumers or the downstream industry or the public at large. "On the basis of the information provided by the interested parties and the investigation conducted, the authority is of the considered view that the imposition of the anti-dumping duty will not be against the public interest", the authority said. Depending on the Chinese importer, the duty range suggested by the authority is between $110 per MT to $542 MT of decor paper.
Mr Amrit Patel, Director, Signature Laminates Pvt Ltd said, “The anti dumping duty on decorative paper imports will affect the industry activity as well as sales, as the country has few manufacturers of decorative paper and major quantities of them are imported from various countries like China, Europe, Japan etc. The laminate industry which is already in stress with rising raw material cost like melamine, kraft paper, phenol etc, the imposition of ADD will aggravate its difficulties harming the laminate manufacturing and its trade. Experts also add that this move will discourage India’s mission to support the Make in India Furniture industry.