Last updated 0005 Hrs IST, Saturday, January 26, 2002
India contests USITC's injury report
Sandip Das in New Delhi
India has urged the US to exempt shipments of Indian steel from import restrictions since "imports from India account for less than 3 per cent of the total steel imported by the US" and hence, were well within the WTO-stipulated safeguard norms. The WTO norms stipulate that developing countries are entitled to exemption from safeguard remedies provided their exports accounted for less than 3 per cent of the total imports of a particular commodity in a country. The Indian initiative follows the injury report filed by the US International Trade Commission (USITC) alleging that imports of hot-rolled steel items from 11 countries, including India and China, were hurting the US steel industry. NN Khanna, secretary, ministry of steel, recently lead a joint-delegation of the domestic steel industry to the US in a bid to seek the removal of the import restrictions. Indian Steel Alliance (ISA), comprising companies such as SAIL, Essar Steel and Ispat Industries, was also part of the delegation. ISA sources said Indian exports to the US had been below the threshold limit of 3 per cent for the last few years and thus, "qualify for exemption from safeguard remedies." USITC, in its final report submitted to US President George Bush, had said: "An industry in the United States is materially injured by reason of imports from India, Indonesia, South Africa and Thailand of hot-rolled steel products and it has been found by the department of commerce to be sold at less than fair value." The ITC had presented its 'injury decision' and remedy recommendations to the US president George Bush last month. Bush will have to take a decision by end of February on the final decision to be taken to protect the domestic industry. Under Section 201 of the Trade Law, Bush might impose a quota, hike tariff or come up with a combination of both known as a tariff-rate quota to restrict the access of Indian steel exporters to the US steel market. The US imports about 34 million tonnes of steel from countries including Brazil, Ukraine, China, European Union and India. India exports about 0.9 million tonnes of steel to US. President Bush launched the Section 201 investigation in June, 2001 following an intensive lobbying campaign by the steel workers of the country who have lost thousands of jobs because of a slowdown in the sector.
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