Ministry of Commerce and Industry Issues Final Findings of Bilateral Safeguard Investigation on Ferro Molybdenum Imports from the Republic of Korea [Read Notification]

The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry issued the final findings of the bilateral safeguard investigation on imports of Ferro Molybdenum from the Republic of Korea under the India-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Bilateral Safeguard Measures) Rules, 2017.

The background of the case is that The Indian Ferro Alloy Producers’ Association, Premier Alloys & Chemicals Private Limited, Boon Metal & Alloy Corporation and Team Ferro Alloys Private Limited filed an application before the Director General of Trade Remedies in accordance with CEPA and Bilateral Safeguard Rules for initiation of a bilateral safeguard investigation and recommendation for suspension of tariff concessions concerning increased imports of Ferro Molybdenum from the Republic of Korea.

Based on prima facie evidence, the Director General initiated the investigation under Rule 4 to examine whether imports of Ferro Molybdenum constitute “increased imports”, whether the same has caused injury to the domestic industry, and whether bilateral safeguard measures are required to be invoked.

The applicants submitted that considering the nature of the industry, there is no published information regarding the gross domestic production of the subject goods in India. The association has clarified that it does not maintain any production or sale record of its members and had given this information purely based on estimates and based on the experience of the key functionaries in the association.

The Director General noted that the anti-dumping rules lay down a minimum requirement of 25%, no such requirement has been laid down in the case of bilateral safeguard rules. Having regard to the Rules, facts of the case and evidence on record, the Director General held that the application satisfies the requirements of standing under the Rules and that the applicant companies constitute the domestic industry.

In conclusion, the Directorate determined that the domestic industry has suffered serious harm as a result of duty concessions granted to Korean imports leading to an increase in imports of the product under consideration from the Republic of Korea at low prices. This was done by taking into account the performance of the domestic producers in respect to various parameters.

Accordingly, the Director General recommends increasing the rate of customs duty on imports of subject goods originating in Korea RP to the lower of below:

1. Most Favoured Nation applied rate of customs duty on the subject goods as on the date of application of Bilateral safeguard measure or
2. Most Favoured Nation applied rate of customs duty on the subject goods as on the day immediately preceding the date of entry into force of India-Korea CEPA.

The action is advised for a period of two years starting on the date of the notification to be made by the Ministry of Finance in this respect, as shown in the table below.

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