Directorate favours dumping duty on tempered glass from Malaysia

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has recommended imposing anti-dumping duty on imports of certain types of both coated and uncoated tempered glass from Malaysia, according to a release posted on its website. The duty amounts to $114.58 per tonne. The duty, if accepted by the ministry of finance, will last five years. The subject goods are used as a component in solar photovoltaic panels and solar thermal applications.

Currently, there are only two exporters shipping their products from the south east Asian country. The duty will spare none but one exporter, namely Xinyi Solar, as it cooperated with the DGTR and whose exports weren’t found to be injuring domestic producers. 

The product carries names like solar glass, low-iron solar glass, high-transmission photovoltaic glass and tempered low-iron patterned solar glass.

DGTR initiated the probe in February last year against the Malaysian exporters on a complaint filed by BSE-listed Gujarat Borosil.  

In its defence, the Malaysian government had cited two major free trade agreements it had with India — one through the ASEAN-India FTA and the Malaysia-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement — as possible reasons for the surge in exports of the given product from the country. Expressing its fear that protectionist measures would undermine the spirit of the trade agreements, it had asked India to ensure all procedures were consistent with the WTO.