India’s Manufacturing Vision And The Role Of Anti-Dumping Duties

• Recent economic development highlights the need for supply chain resilience and a strong competitive manufacturing sector.
• Anti-dumping measures not only ensure fair competition against unfairly priced imports but also support these manufacturing objectives.
• Broader economic significance lies in strategic space anti-dumping measures provide to the domestic industries.
• Past several instances show non-imposition of recommended duties adversely affected manufacturing in India and timely remedy against measures has  encouraged investment, capacity expansion, employment generation, and  long-term industrial growth in India.

The recent economic developments have made it clear that the need of the economy is to strengthen domestic manufacturing by improving competitiveness, encouraging investments, reducing avoidable import dependence and building resilient globally integrated Indian supply chains. This is also reflected through several policy decisions of the Government under vision of Make in India, Atmanirbhar Bharat and Vocal for Local. Despite severe policy relief measures such as Production Linked Incentive, National Manufacturing Mission, PM Gati Shakti, Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP), various sectors have often struggled to compete against the influx of unfair imports. Some of the key reasons for the same are the inherent cost disadvantages such as high freight costs and inverted duty structure and then to compound these problems dumping of products happens. Usually, anti-dumping duty or countervailing duties can offer due remedy against injurious imports, and it does not prevent foreign producers from selling in India but only ensures that fair pricing prevails in the market.

Data indicates that between 3 years from October 2020 to September 2023, around 81 of 134 recommendations made by the DGTR were not implemented. In other words, despite the Government of India finding unfair imports in India, causing injury to the industry, no duty was imposed to offset such unfair competition. This is in sharp contrast to the preceding three decades, during which only 3 of 1,052 recommendations were not implemented. The trend of rejection of recommendations reversed notably between October 2023 and October 2025, with majority recommendations being implemented. However, post October 2025, a larger number of recommendations for imposition of duty are again being rejected, reigniting debate over how trade remedy outcomes can be better aligned with India's broader manufacturing and supply-chain objectives.

Such non-imposition of duties can often have drastic effects on the industry concerned. This is especially since historic trends show that the adverse effect of the dumped imports was not a temporary phenomenon but had the significant adverse impact on the viability of the industry. The present article analyses some such cases.

Illustrative case study on impact on non-imposition of duty adversely affected Indian industry.

In the case of Nylon Filament Yarn, the DGTR recommended the imposition of anti- dumping duty on imports in 2020. The findings of DGTR also show that India was self-sufficient in the product. However, the recommendations of DGTR were not accepted, leading to the industry continuing to suffer over a longer term. The industry filed an application again and DGTR has recommended measures in 2026. However, the trend over the period now reveals that despite market growth imports increased, the domestic producers lost market, prices came under pressure and several producers ceased operations and Indian industry shrunk due to non-imposition of duty. In case of Rubber Chemicals, where DGTR recommendation was not implemented, the industry continued to suffer significantly and had to again file an application for imposition of measures. The findings of the DGTR show that the domestic industry has actually reported losses for the first time in last 20 years and therefore, has again recommended anti-dumping measures in 2026.

In case of another product PTFE, removal of duty had led to industry suffering again, forcing them to file a fresh application. While DGTR again recommended measures, but the same were not imposed. Industry has since then filed an application again. There are several cases such as R-134A, Plastic Processing Machine, Aluminium foil, etc. where recommendations were not accepted in around 2020, but as industry suffered again, DGTR recommended measures and measures were imposed.

Notable instances when the anti-dumping duty had led to growth of industry.

There are several cases, where the imposition of timely anti-dumping duty has been crucial in helping the Indian industry thrive. One of the most remarkable transformations has been in the ceramic tiles sector, where capacity soared from 3 million to 500 million units, investment leaped from ₹100 crore to over ₹50,000 crore, and India not only achieved complete self-sufficiency in the product, but is the second largest exporter of tiles, after China, globally. India today exports tiles to over 100 countries.

Another striking example is the PVC Flex industry, which grew from a single producer to twelve, with investments surging from approximately ₹100 crore to ₹2,000 crore and import dependence plummeting from 95% to under 5%. In a similar vein, anti- dumping duties imposed on CPVC Resin and compounds in 2019 when domestic capacity stood at a mere 10,000 MT helped propel that figure to 1,95,000 MT today.

These examples illustrate only a small part of a much larger narrative, which demonstrates that when fair competition are allowed to prevail in the domestic market, the manufacturing sector is often able to regain momentum, make fresh investments and gradually reduce the excessive dependence on imports.

The Road Ahead

At a time when global demand remains uncertain, and India remains one of the few large markets showing steady growth, it has become all the more necessary to ensure that the Indian industry is empowered to cater to the domestic demand. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects global growth at around 3.1% in 2026, while India is expected to grow at about 6.5%, compared with China which is aimed to grow at around 4.4%. Other major economies such as European Union, Korea, Japan, Germany and Italy are also growing at lower rates. This makes India being price sensitive market is an attractive destination for exporters, especially when demand is weak elsewhere.

Anti-dumping duties should not be seen merely as short-term defensive instruments. Timely action is therefore important to ensure that the growing demand supports domestic production, investment and capacity expansion, rather than avoidable import dependence. Domestic manufacturing supports not only producers, but also workers, suppliers, transporters, distributors and downstream industries.

Although dumped imports may appear lucrative to user industries in the short run, they can weaken domestic producers over time and increase dependence on foreign suppliers, creating vulnerability to future price increases, supply disruptions or sudden changes in export behaviour.

- Rudra Pratap Singh, Principal Consultant

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