India hits imported ball bearings with high dumping duties

India Hits Imported Ball Bearings With High Dumping Duties The Government of India, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, has issued a preliminary determination that ball bearings from four countries are being sold into India at unfairly low prices. In response, it has slapped those imports -- from China, Russia, Poland and Romania -- with extremely high anti-dumping duties under the Customs Tariff Act. In September 2002, eBearing reported that the Directorate General of Antidumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) had launched a formal investigation into dumping of ball bearings from the Peoples Republic of China, Poland, Russia, and Romania. The investigation was in response to a complaint filed by the 12-member Ball and Roller Bearing Manufacturers Association of India. The DGAD performed an initial investigation and found in favor of the complaint, that there was sufficient evidence dumping was taking place, warranting a full investigation by the Commerce Ministry. The matter was then referred to the Commerce Ministry for a full investigation and determination, if necessary, of the proper anti-dumping duties or penalties. Now the report has been received and India has responded by imposing extremely high provisional dumping duties on those particular ball bearings, as per the table below. Commodity high-volume ball bearings which normally sell for pennies have been hit with rates which essentially price them out of the market. For example, a 6201 from China now carries anti-dumping duty of USD $0.442, while other Chinese ball bearings can carry an "all other" rate as high as $0.477. Affected ball bearings originating in or shipped from Russia carry a universal $0.522, Poland $0.461, and Romania, $0.432. Significantly, the anti-dumping duties also apply to bearings which are shipped from those particular countries, regardless of the bearings' country of origin. This attempt to deal with so-called "pass-through" shipments answers a secondary problem often created by the imposition of duties -- for example, U.S. producers long complained that exporters circumvented U.S. duties on bearings from certain countries, simply by bringing them into the U.S. via Canada or Mexico. The official findings are: ¡¤ ball bearings have been exported to India from the Peoples Republic of China, Poland, Russia and Romania below the normal value, resulting in dumping; ¡¤ the domestic industry has suffered material injury; ¡¤ the material injury has been caused by the dumped imports from the Peoples Republic of China, Poland, Russia, and Romania. The notification further states, "...the designated authority has considered it necessary to impose anti-dumping duty, provisionally, pending final determination, on all imports of the subject goods originating in or exported from People Republic of China, Poland, Russia and Romania:" Click here to see Details of the preliminary duty schedule, in U.S. Dollars, effective through December 3, 2003