Tribunal overturns Central Govt's decision on anti-dumping duty, orders reconsideration

The Tribunal allowed the appeal by the Association of Synthetic Fibre Industry against the Central Government's failure to impose anti-dumping duty on imports of specific goods from China PR and Thailand. The Tribunal set aside the Central Government's decision and directed a reconsideration based on the designated authority's recommendation for anti-dumping duty imposition. The matter was remitted for a fresh decision, and the notification rescinding the earlier duty imposition was to be subject to the new decision by the Central Government. The judgment was pronounced on 1st November 2021.

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Issues:
Central Government's failure to levy anti-dumping duty on imports of specific goods from certain countries despite designated authority's recommendation.

Analysis:
The appellant, Association of Synthetic Fibre Industry, filed an appeal against the Central Government's failure to impose anti-dumping duty on imports of "All Fully Drawn or Fully Oriented Yarn/ Flat Yarn of Polyester" from China PR and Thailand, despite the designated authority recommending a five-year imposition of anti-dumping duty. The appeal sought to set aside the Office Memorandum rescinding the earlier anti-dumping duty notification and requested a direction for the Central Government to issue a new notification based on the designated authority's recommendation. Previously, anti-dumping duty was imposed on the subject goods by the Central Government in 2009, with subsequent extensions through sunset reviews. The final findings of the designated authority in 2020 recommended the imposition of anti-dumping duty, which was not accepted by the Central Government, leading to the issuance of the rescinding notification in December 2020.

The authorized representative of the Union of India mentioned that the Central Government did not accept the designated authority's recommendation, leading to the issuance of the rescinding notification. The absence of an Office Memorandum explicitly conveying the decision not to accept the recommendation was noted. The issues raised in this appeal were previously considered in a similar case, where the Tribunal set aside the Central Government's decision not to impose anti-dumping duty based on the designated authority's recommendation and remitted the matter for a fresh decision by the Central Government. In line with the precedent, the Tribunal in the current case also set aside the decision of the Central Government and remitted the matter for a fresh decision based on the designated authority's recommendation. The appeal was allowed, and the Central Government was directed to reconsider the recommendation for anti-dumping duty imposition. The notification rescinding the earlier duty imposition would be subject to the fresh decision by the Central Government. The judgment was pronounced on 1st November 2021.

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