Commerce Ministry to investigate, clamp down on dumping, “import surges”

The Ministry of Commerce has begun using its various departments such as the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) to clamp down on import surges and dumping in India owing to malpractice by India’s trading partners. It has also begun coordinating with other Ministries on this. 

The DGTR last month initiated anti-dumping investigations on eight different product lines originating from a total of 12 countries or groupings, The Hindu has learnt.  

“In the Department of Commerce, we have started monitoring the import surges for all commodities now and have started sharing the surge reports with different Ministries so that they can also monitor at their level,” Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said during a press briefing. 

“Whenever we find an unusual surge, we examine it, and if need be, if we find that a surge is due to a malpractice, in that case we are also using the DGFT to restrict it,” he added.

For example, the DGFT last month restricted the import of the alloys of palladium, rhodium, and iridium containing more than 1% of gold. 

India imposes anti-dumping duty on five Chinese products

According to sources, this was because the government found that importers were importing gold — which normally attracts a higher import duty — disguised as alloys of these metals, the import of which was free. 

“We have also told DGTR, in view of the fact that a lot of trade diversions are happening around the world, to look at if there is any import which may be harming the domestic sector in the country,” Mr. Barthwal further said during the press briefing.

The Hindu has learnt that the DGTR in June 2025 launched eight investigations on possible dumping activities. Dumping refers to the practice of exporting goods to other countries — including to India — at prices well below their normal rate. 

The DGTR has launched such anti-dumping investigations on the import of several industrial chemicals from China, Taiwan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Switzerland and the EU, as well as types of glass wool from Egypt and types of paperboards from Indonesia.