India will oppose a move by World Trade Organisation's committee on rules to legitimise a process that will allow the United States to impose high anti-dumping duties.
A draft circular issued by WTO Committee on Rules Chair and Uruguayan Ambassador Guillermo Valles Galmes states that the process of Zeroing -- used by the US to calculate the dumping margin, which is the difference between the local price in the exporting country and the export price -- could be allowed in certain circumstances.
"We are opposed to the process of zeroing and will always oppose it," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told PTI on the sidelines of CENTAD conference
in New Delhi.
India has communicated its opposition to the WTO. "We have come out with a note expressing our opposition," he said. Zeroing inflates the dumping margin, which in turn increases the anti-dumping duties on products.
Under the process of zeroing, the importing country calculates the average dumping margin by considering similar products, but ignoring the negative dumping margin that is considered as zero.
On several occasions, another WTO authority has refused the demand by the US and EU to calculate the anti-dumping duties using the process of Zeroing. But, the recent circular could lead to legitimising this process and create protectionism.
