The Directorate General of Trade remedies under the Commerce Ministry has started a probe in connection with imports of “Single-Mode Optical Fibre’’ in India. This comes at the backdrop of the complaint filed by Sterlite Technologies Limited (STL) and Birla Furukawa Optics Private Limited (BFL). In the complain it is alleged that rising in imports of “Single-Mode Optical Fibre” (SMOF) is posing a threat to the domestic industry. The applicants sought that the government imposes provisional safeguard duty in the wake of a rise in imports of SMOF.
The Director-General after going through the applications has found that there has been a considerable rise in the import of subject goods during 2018-2019. This surge in imports can be attributed to the developments such as global oversupply, anti-dumping duty levied by China against biggest optical fibre countries and due to the restriction imposed on sale of China-made optical fibre, and that the volume and prices of these imports have caused and/or are threatening to cause significant injury to domestic industry.
After determining that there is enough evidence to justify initiation of safeguard investigation, the Director-General initiated an investigation pursuant to rule 5 of the Safeguard rules, 1997 in order to determine whether as a result of unforeseen developments, the imports of the product under consideration constitute increased imports, and whether the increased imports have caused and/or are threatening to cause serious injury to the domestic industry of like and/or directly competing products. The applicants have claimed that the increased import of the product has caused and is threatening to cause serious injury to the domestic producers. They have also claimed that their sales to independent customers have substantially gone down.
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