India’s manufacturing industry has asked the government to impose a 35% anti-dumping duty on capital goods imported from China, arguing that the measure is necessary to offset the indirect subsidy that Beijing offers to its industry via a fixed exchange rate.
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The Economic Times reported that a delegation comprising L&T chairman A M Naik, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers director general Dilip Chenoy and Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant, met finance minister P Chidambaram and demanded that such a measure was necessary to counter the slowdown in India’s industrial production.
The report said that the delegation contended that India’s industry is being hit by the appreciation of the rupee and has seen its cost competitiveness eroded due to the fixed rate of exchange for the Chinese currency against the dollar.
Industry representatives argued this translated into an indirect subsidy of around 30% to manufacturers in China. The delegation also sought easy financing for automobiles and special additional duty on imported cars.
The Economic Times noted that consumer durables, which include the automobile sector, registered a decline in output in January this year compared to the same month in 2007.
