DCCI protests proposed anti-dumping duty on jute

The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry yesterday expressed worries over the proposed anti-dumping duty on the export of Bangladeshi jute to the Indian market.

The Indian government has recently imposed anti-dumping duty ranging from $8 to $350 per tonne, originating in Bangladesh and Nepal.

Based on an investigation outcome, the chamber said there is no clear finding of injury caused by Bangladesh's export price and volume to Indian local finished products.

Bangladesh usually exports processed jute-made goods like yarn, twine, sacks and bags worth around $700 million a year to many world destinations of which Indian market accounts for 20 percent equivalent to 8 percent of the entire Indian local market share.

“This insignificant percentage cannot anyway dump their local jute market,” DCCI said in a statement.

“The proposed anti-dumping duty could result in adverse multiplier impacts on our local growers, producers, exporters and spur further trade imbalance with India,” it said.

Bangladesh, despite being the largest export destination of India in South Asia, is working hard to improve and maintain a justified cross-border bilateral trade relation with India. “This sort of a decision is likely to deal a blow to our endeavour,” the DCCI said.

The commerce and finance ministries of Bangladesh should immediately talk with the Indian government so the duty is not imposed, it said. Three years ago, the Indian Jute Mills Association had accused Bangladeshi exporters -- for the first time in 40 years -- of selling jute products at prices lower than those in India's domestic market.

In October 2015, the Indian anti-dumping authority started its investigation into the matter.

As part of the investigation, a team of India's Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties visited some factories in Bangladesh and collected data, including the export prices of the shipped products to India and the sales prices in the domestic market, said industry insiders. Officials of the tariff commission of Bangladesh attended several hearings in India before the conclusion of the investigation. Usually, the anti-dumping duty on a product is the same amount by which it undercuts the domestically manufactured product.

The average prices of widely exported 28-carded jute yarn vary between $820 and $830 a tonne.

Bangladesh exports more than 1.10 lakh tonnes of jute yarn to India a year, according to data from Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association. Besides the jute yarn, Bangladesh also exports raw jute and other jute goods.

Bangladesh's jute sector, which involves about 40 lakh farmers and about two lakh workers, processes more than nine lakh tonnes of raw jute out of the average local production of 13.5 lakh tonnes a year. Jute yarn and twine account for 65 percent of the sector's annual export receipts of over $850 million, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau and Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association.