Following allegations from Indian paper mills that foreign countries are ‘dumping’ photocopy papers in India, the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) has initiated an anti-dumping duty investigation concerning imports of ‘uncoated copier paper’ originating in or exported from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

The DGAD in a notification said that it has found “sufficient prima facie evidence” of dumping of such paper from these countries.

The move is aimed at protecting domestic players in the sector against cheap imports. “The authority hereby initiates an investigation into the alleged dumping, and consequent injury to the domestic industry,” it said.

The West Coast Paper Mills, Tamil Nadu Newsprint, Papers, Ballarpur Industries and JK Paper had filed an application before the authorities.

The probe will determine the existence and effect of the alleged dumping and recommend the amount of anti-dumping duty, which if levied, would be adequate to remove the injury to the domestic industry, the DGAD notification added. The period of probe would be April 2016 to June 2017 (15 months) for the purpose of present investigations.

However, for the purpose of injury investigation, the period will cover the data from 2013-2016.

Countries carry out anti-dumping probe to determine whether their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in cheap imports. As a counter measure, they impose duties under the multilateral regime of World Trade Organisation (WTO).

India has already imposed anti-dumping duty on several products to tackle cheap imports, including from China.

The country has imposed the duty on as many as 98 products, as on 27 December 2017, imported from China.