India's AD duty on Chinese tyre imports not effective

Exim News Service reported that the anti dumping duty on the imports of Chinese trucks and bus tyres imposed by India in 2007 does not seem to have had much impact due to the price differential of the product in both countries.

Mr Rajeev Buddhiraja director general of Automotive Tyre Manufacturers' Association said that "The rising imports of commercial vehicle tyres clearly demonstrate that the anti dumping duty has been ineffectual."

He added that though the anti dumping duty was hiked to USD 135 from USD 75, the price difference in the domestic and Chinese replacement market remains in the range of 10% to 30%.

According to the data from the directorate general of commercial intelligence & statistics till September 2007 and the projected data by ATMA till March 2008, imports of commercial vehicles tyres had risen steeply in the last 5 years with the Chinese tyres making up 91% of the total number of tyres imported. ATMA disclosed that the competition in the replacement market was between domestic companies like Apollo, JK, MRF and imported tyres. It revealed that the share of Chinese tyres in the domestic replacement market had risen from 0.3% in 2002-03 to 14% as on March 31st 2008.

ATMA also pointed out that the inverted duty structure under which the imports attracted 10% customs duty as against 20% on natural rubber, had also boosted the number of tyres imported.