Anti-Dumping Duties on Indian Exports: How They Work and How to Respond

Key takeaways

If you export steel, chemicals, textiles, or any manufactured good to a developed market, anti-dumping duties are a risk you cannot afford to ignore. An AD investigation in the United States or European Union can result in duties of 20. 60% on your products (sometimes higher) turning a profitable export channel into an unviable one overnight. The worst part: if you do not respond to the investigation, you get hit with the highest possible rate by default.

This guide explains how anti-dumping duties work from an Indian exporter's perspective, how dumping margins are calculated, what happens during an investigation, and what you can do to protect your market access.

What Is Anti-Dumping?

Dumping occurs when a company exports a product at a price lower than its "normal value". Typically the price at which it sells the same product in its domestic market, or the full cost of production plus a reasonable profit margin. When the domestic industry of the importing country can demonstrate that these low-priced imports are causing "material injury" to them, the importing country's government can impose an anti-dumping duty (ADD) on those imports.

Anti-dumping duties are not regular customs tariffs. They are additional charges applied on top of the normal customs duty specifically to counteract the price advantage created by dumping. The legal foundation comes from Article VI of the GATT and the WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement (formally, the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of GATT 1994), which sets out the rules every WTO member must follow when investigating and imposing AD duties.

How AD Investigations Work

An anti-dumping investigation follows a structured process defined by WTO rules. Here is the typical sequence:

The entire investigation typically takes 12 to 18 months. During this period, your exports can continue, but if provisional duties are imposed (usually after the preliminary determination), your buyers will need to post a bond or cash deposit equivalent to the provisional duty rate. This alone can deter buyers from placing new orders.

Current AD Duties on Indian Exports

Indian exports face active anti-dumping orders in several major markets. Some of the most significant ones:

AD Duties India Imposes as an Importer

India is also one of the most active users of anti-dumping measures globally. The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has imposed AD duties on hundreds of products, primarily from China, South Korea, the EU, and other countries. This matters to Indian exporters because AD duties on your inputs directly affect your export pricing and costing.

Key categories where India has imposed AD duties on imports:

• · Chinese steel: Hot-rolled and cold-rolled flat products, stainless steel, galvanised sheets. Directly raises input costs for Indian steel fabricators and engineering exporters
• · Chinese chemicals: Caustic soda, PVC resin, purified terephthalic acid (PTA), various organic chemicals. Increases raw material costs for pharma and chemical exporters
• · Korean chemicals and fibres: Nylon tyre cord fabric, optical fibre, certain synthetic filament yarns. Affects textile and telecom equipment exporters

How the Dumping Margin Is Calculated

The dumping margin is the core number in any AD case. It represents the difference between the "normal value" of the product and the export price. The AD duty imposed cannot exceed this margin.

Normal value is determined in one of three ways, applied in order of preference:

1. Domestic selling price: The comparable price at which you sell the same (or a similar) product in India, in the ordinary course of trade. Sales below cost are excluded.
2. Third-country price: If domestic sales are insufficient (less than 5% of export volume), the price at which you sell to a third country may be used.
3. Constructed normal value: Cost of production plus selling, general, and administrative (SGA) expenses plus a reasonable profit margin. This is often used when domestic sales data is limited or sales are below cost.

Export price is typically the transaction price on your commercial invoices. However, if the sale is between related parties (for example, you are selling to your own subsidiary abroad), the investigating authority may reconstruct the export price based on the first arm's-length resale price, minus costs and a reasonable margin for the importer.

Both normal value and export price are adjusted to make them comparable at the same level of trade. Typically ex-factory. Adjustments are made for differences in physical characteristics, packaging, transport, insurance, credit terms, taxes, and quantities. These adjustments are where much of the legal and accounting complexity lies, and they can significantly move the dumping margin up or down.

Example

If your constructed normal value for a steel product is USD 800 per tonne and your FOB export price to the US is USD 650 per tonne, the dumping margin is USD 150 per tonne, or 18.75% (150/800). The AD duty would be set at up to 18.75% of the CIF value for your company.

The Investigation Process for Indian Exporters

When a foreign country initiates an AD investigation against Indian products, here is what you need to do and what to expect:

Questionnaire response

The investigating authority will send a detailed questionnaire asking for your domestic sales data, export sales data, cost of production, corporate structure, and financial statements. You typically have 30 to 37 days to respond, though extensions of 10. 14 days are sometimes granted if requested promptly. The questionnaire is extensive. Responses often run to hundreds of pages with supporting documentation.

Verification visit

After reviewing your questionnaire response, the foreign investigating authority will typically send a team to your manufacturing facility in India. They will verify that the data you submitted matches your actual accounting records, production logs, and sales documentation. They check everything. Production costs, raw material invoices, sales invoices, credit notes, transport bills. Any discrepancy between your questionnaire response and your actual records can lead to the authority rejecting your data and using "facts available" instead, which almost always results in a higher dumping margin.

Legal counsel

AD investigations are legal proceedings in a foreign jurisdiction. You need a trade remedy lawyer. Typically one in the importing country who specialises in anti-dumping cases. In the US, this means a Washington DC-based trade lawyer. In the EU, a Brussels-based firm experienced with European Commission investigations. Your Indian counsel should coordinate with the foreign lawyer. Industry associations like FIEO and relevant Export Promotion Councils can often recommend experienced firms.

How to Avoid or Minimise AD Duty Exposure

While you cannot prevent a foreign industry from filing an AD petition, you can take steps to minimise your vulnerability and reduce the dumping margin if an investigation is initiated:

Prevention strategies

• Price above cost of production plus a reasonable profit. Ensure your export pricing covers full cost of production, SGA expenses, and a margin that would be considered reasonable in your industry. If your export price is at or above your domestic price, you are not dumping by definition.
• Maintain detailed cost accounting records. Your cost allocation methodology, raw material costs, labour, overheads, and depreciation should be traceable to source documents. Investigation verification teams will test these records. If your accounting is disorganised, the authority will construct costs using its own assumptions. Usually unfavourable to you.
• Consider price undertakings. In some jurisdictions (particularly the EU), you can offer a "price undertaking". A commitment to sell at or above a minimum import price. If accepted by the investigating authority, no AD duty is imposed, but you must strictly adhere to the minimum price. Violations of an undertaking can result in immediate imposition of the full AD duty plus penalties.
• Diversify export markets. Concentration risk is real. If 70% of your exports go to a single market and that market imposes AD duties, the impact is devastating. Building presence across multiple markets reduces the impact of any single AD action. It also reduces the volume surge into any one market that triggers domestic industry complaints in the first place.

Sunset Reviews: When AD Duties Expire

Anti-dumping duties are not permanent. Under WTO rules, they must be reviewed and either renewed or terminated after 5 years from the date of the final determination. This review is called a "sunset review" (or "expiry review" in the EU).

In a sunset review, the investigating authority assesses whether removing the AD duty would likely lead to a continuation or recurrence of dumping and injury. The domestic industry must demonstrate that the threat remains. If they cannot, the duty lapses. If they can, it is extended for another 5 years.

For Indian exporters, sunset reviews are an opportunity. If your pricing practices have changed, if market conditions have shifted, or if the domestic industry in the importing country has recovered, you can argue for removal or reduction of the duty. However, you must actively participate. If no Indian exporters respond to the sunset review, the authority will likely renew the duty based on the original investigation data.

Countervailing Duties (CVD): Related but Different

Countervailing duties are often confused with anti-dumping duties, but they address a different problem. While AD duties target the exporter's pricing behaviour, CVDs target government subsidies that give exporters an unfair cost advantage.

The types of subsidies that can trigger a CVD investigation include: direct cash grants or export subsidies from the government, tax exemptions or rebates beyond normal schemes (the US has challenged Indian schemes like MEIS and SEZ tax benefits), below-market-rate loans from government-owned banks, and subsidised provision of raw materials or utilities. The WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement) governs these cases.

A product can face both AD duties and CVDs simultaneously if the investigating authority finds evidence of both dumping and subsidisation. This has happened with Indian steel exports to the US, where some products face combined rates exceeding 60%. The investigation process for CVDs is similar to AD investigations, with the additional requirement that the investigating authority must identify specific government programmes that constitute actionable subsidies.

Resources: Where to Check Active AD Orders

Staying informed is your first line of defence. Here are the key sources for Indian exporters:

• · DGTR (Directorate General of Trade Remedies): India's trade remedy authority publishes all Indian AD investigations (inbound and outbound notifications), active orders, and sunset review schedules at dgtr.gov.in. DGTR also assists Indian exporters facing AD investigations abroad.
• · FIEO (Federation of Indian Export Organisations): Publishes trade alerts and circulars whenever a foreign country initiates or renews AD measures against Indian products. Subscribe to their notification service.
• · US ITC (International Trade Commission): For AD duties in the US, the ITC's website and the Department of Commerce's Enforcement and Compliance portal list all active AD/CVD orders with current duty rates by company.
• · European Commission TARIC database: For EU AD duties, the TARIC database shows the current duty rate for any HS code from any origin country, including any company-specific AD duty rates.
• · WTO AD Gateway: The WTO maintains a database of all anti-dumping measures notified by member countries, searchable by product, country, and date.

Before you export to a new market

• Check whether your product (by HS code) faces any existing AD or CVD duties in the destination country.
• Check whether any AD investigations are currently pending against your product category from India.
• Review your export pricing against your domestic selling price and cost of production to assess dumping risk.
• Ensure your cost accounting records are audit-ready in case an investigation is initiated.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if an Indian exporter does not respond to an anti-dumping questionnaire?

The investigating authority applies "facts available". The highest possible duty rate, often based on the most adverse data from the petition. This "all others" rate applies to all your exports for the duration of the order (typically 5 years or more). Reversing it requires participating in a costly administrative review. The cost of legal representation during the original investigation is almost always less than the revenue lost to an inflated rate.

How long do anti-dumping duties last and can they be removed?

AD duties last 5 years from the final determination. Before expiry, a sunset review determines whether to extend them for another 5 years. Some duties have been renewed for 15. 20 years through successive reviews. Indian exporters can participate in sunset reviews to argue for removal. The duty can also be removed earlier through an interim review if market conditions change significantly.

What is the difference between anti-dumping duty and countervailing duty?

Anti-dumping duty addresses the exporter's pricing behaviour. Selling below normal value. Countervailing duty addresses government subsidies that distort the exporter's cost structure. A product can face both simultaneously. The investigation processes are similar, but CVD cases require identifying specific government subsidy programmes, while AD cases focus on the company's own pricing and cost data.

Related Guides

, , , , ].map((link) => (

))}

Seasaw for Indian Exporters

Stay Ahead of Trade Remedy Actions

Seasaw tracks AD and CVD notifications affecting your product categories, monitors your export pricing against dumping risk thresholds, and keeps your cost accounting records audit-ready. So you are never caught off guard by a trade remedy investigation.

Learn more about Seasaw

Update history

• 2026-07-17 First published.