How a DGTR anti-dumping investigation actually runs

How does a DGTR anti-dumping investigation start?

Almost every anti-dumping case begins with the domestic industry filing an application before the Directorate General of Trade Remedies. Applications are now filed through the SETU e-filing portal, and (like every submission in a trade remedy case) must be filed in two versions: a confidential version (CV) and a non-confidential version (NCV) that goes on the public file. DGTR can also initiate a case suo-moto under Rule 5(4) , acting on information from the Commissioner of Customs or any other source, but applicant-driven cases are the norm.

Before initiating, DGTR applies the standing twin test under Rule 5(3)(a) of the AD Rules, measured on production volume, not value:

The application must state a period of investigation (POI) (normally 12 months, and not older than 5 months at the application date) plus an injury period covering the 3 financial years preceding the POI. Transaction-wise import data for the application comes from DGCI&S, released with DGTR authorisation under Trade Notices 1/2018 and 7/2018.

Once DGTR accepts the application, initiation generally follows within 30 days . The contrast with the sibling remedies is worth knowing: countervailing duty (CVD) cases take 60. 75 days to initiate because the WTO ASCM makes pre-initiation consultations with the exporting government mandatory, and safeguard cases take roughly 90 days.

What must you file in the first 40 days after initiation?

The 40-day clock is the single most consequential deadline in the whole case for exporters and importers. Under Trade Notice 11/2018, interested parties must request registration within 40 days of the initiation notice. Though filing a questionnaire response is deemed registration even without a separate written request.

On the questionnaire itself, Rule 6(4) gives 30 days from receipt of the notice to furnish information, but DGTR's general practice grants 40 days from publication of the initiation notice, extendable case by case. The catch: parties who miss the stipulated time get no additional time under Trade Notice 11/2018.

The four questionnaire tracks

• Exporter Questionnaire (Parts I and II). For producers and exporters in the subject countries; the route to an individual dumping margin.
• Importer Questionnaire. For Indian importers of the subject goods; feeds landed-value and resale-price analysis.
• User-industry questionnaire. Format per Trade Notice 08/2021; for downstream industries that consume the product.
• Economic Interest Questionnaire (EIQ). Issued to all interested parties; the public-interest channel through which duties can be opposed on economy-wide grounds.

A supplementary Market Economy Conditions questionnaire issues where prima facie evidence suggests non-market-economy conditions in the exporting country (paras 7. 8, Annexure I of the AD Rules). And where cooperation is heavy, sampling under Rule 17(3) kicks in: generally triggered at 3 or more cooperating producer-exporters from a country, with the sampling decision and methodology notified within 80 days of initiation. Sampled exporters get individual margins, un-sampled cooperators get the weighted average of the sampled margins, and non-cooperators get the residual margin.

All of this runs through SETU as a CV + NCV pair. The NCV auto-publishes to the Public File and cannot be amended after submission ; uploads are capped at 20MB per file, with Excel files up to 70MB. For a screen-by-screen walkthrough of the portal, see the SETU portal filing guide .

When can provisional anti-dumping duty hit your imports?

Provisional duty cannot be imposed before 60 days from initiation. DGTR's internal milestone schedule targets preliminary findings under Rule 12 at day 90, so in practice the provisional-duty risk window opens around month 3 of the case.

The refund mechanics matter to importers. If the final duty comes in lower than the provisional duty collected, or the duty is withdrawn, the difference is refundable through the designated CBIC Competent Authority. If the final duty is higher , the difference is not collected for the provisional period. Retrospective levy exists but is bounded: anti-dumping duty can reach back no further than 90 days before the duty notification, and only where there is a history of dumping or importer awareness plus massive dumping that would undermine the remedy.

How is the duty amount actually calculated. What is the lesser-duty rule?

India goes beyond the WTO minimum here. The WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement allows a duty up to the full dumping margin; Rule 4 of the AD Rules instead mandates the lower of the dumping margin and the injury margin (the lesser-duty rule) so the duty removes injury to the domestic industry and no more. The injury margin is the Non-Injurious Price (NIP) of the domestic industry minus the landed value of the dumped imports.

Why cooperation decides your rate: cooperating producers and exporters earn individual margins and producer-specific rows in the duty table. Everyone else falls under the residual "any other producer" row, set on facts available under Rule 6(8) . In the Soda Ash final findings of September 2025, cooperating producers from one subject country received USD 17. 69/MT while the residual row was USD 113/MT. More than six times the best cooperating rate.

The de minimis exits deserve early attention: the investigation terminates if the dumping margin is below 2% of the export price, if dumped imports from a country are below 3% of total imports of the like article (below 7% collectively for all such small-share countries), if injury is negligible, if the application is withdrawn, or if the evidence is insufficient. A de minimis argument can end the case before margins are ever fought over. Which is why it belongs in week one of your defence planning, not month six.

What are the statutory deadlines from initiation to final findings?

The hard statutory ceiling: final findings within 1 year of initiation , extendable by the Central Government up to a further 6 months in exceptional circumstances. Inside that ceiling, DGTR runs an internal milestone schedule for cases initiated on or after 1 January 2018: provisional dumping and NIP files by day 82, first presentation on day 85, preliminary findings on day 90, oral hearing under Rule 6(6) at day 120, final presentation on day 150 (200 with a foreign verification visit), disclosure statement under Rule 16 at day 160 (210 with a foreign visit), and final finding notification under Rule 17 at day 180 (240 with a foreign visit).

One squeeze point deserves a flag: the disclosure-comment window can be brutally short. In the Soda Ash case, the disclosure statement issued on 21.09.2025 with comments due 26.09.2025. A 5-day window . Parties who had not pre-drafted their positions on dumping methodology, NIP construction and causation simply could not respond in time.

And remember the division of labour at the end: DGTR only recommends . The Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue, Tax Research Unit) levies the duty, and the levy has to happen within 3 months of the provisional or final recommendation. In practice, notification within 90 days of the Final Finding.

What happens after the duty is imposed. Reviews, sunset and appeals?

A definitive anti-dumping duty lives at most 5 years from imposition unless revoked earlier or extended after a sunset review. And there is no legal limit on the number of extensions, which is why some Indian anti-dumping duties have run for decades through successive sunset reviews.

The post-imposition toolkit

• Sunset review (SSR). Application at least 270 days before expiry; 240. 269 days accepted only with delay justification and a late fee; under 240 days not entertained (Trade Notice 02/2017). DGTR can also initiate an SSR suo-moto.
• Mid-term review (MTR). File between 12 and 42 months from imposition of the definitive duty (Trade Notice 1/2010 and the SOP), for changed circumstances on dumping or injury.
• New Shipper Review (NSR). For exporters who did not export during the original POI and are unrelated to duty-bearing exporters; the route to your own individual rate after the fact.
• Anti-circumvention investigation. Altering the description, name, composition or form of the product, or shifting country of origin or export to dodge the duty, triggers one; any resulting duty is co-terminus with the underlying anti-dumping duty.
• CESTAT appeal. Against anti-dumping and CVD measures under Section 9C of the Customs Tariff Act, within 90 days from imposition of the duty; negative final findings are also appealable (Delhi High Court, 20.09.2018); CESTAT orders go up to the High Court or Supreme Court, writs in limited natural-justice cases.

One structural point: while a duty is in force, no fresh application can be filed on the same product and country combination. The only route to change the duty is a review. That makes the review calendar (270 days pre-expiry for sunset, months 12. 42 for mid-term) as important to diarise as the original investigation deadlines.

What if you are on the defending side. Importer, user, or Indian exporter abroad?

There are three defending postures, and they run through different channels.

(1) Indian importer or user in a domestic DGTR case. DGTR questionnaires known importers and users under Rule 6(4) and circulates the non-confidential application under Rule 6(3). In the Soda Ash case, more than 28 named importers and users (including major FMCG manufacturers and glass producers) were questionnaired; several filed responses, and even parties that did not file the questionnaire, such as a large glass manufacturer and the soaps-and-detergents industry federation, filed written submissions. The opposition arguments that actually ran: public-interest objections through the EIQ, demands to disclose the "all others" margin before the final finding, and attacks on applicant standing and causation. Pointing to the applicants' own plant breakdowns and low capacity utilisation. The full playbook is in the guide on responding to an anti-dumping case as an Indian importer .

(2) Indian exporter named in a foreign anti-dumping case. The exporter participates directly before the foreign investigating authority. The initiation notice typically reaches you through the Embassy of India, then DGTR's Trade Defence Wing, then your Export Promotion Council. There is no obligation on the Government of India to participate in an anti-dumping case (unlike CVD, where the GOI is itself an interested party because its subsidy schemes are under attack), but the Trade Defence Wing assists on request (tdw-dgtr@gov.in) including support during verification and GOI comments at hearings. See the dedicated guide on defending a foreign anti-dumping case as an Indian exporter .

(3) The economics of showing up. In both directions, cooperation earns individual margins and silence earns the facts-available or residual rate. Foreign CVD rates on Indian exports have ranged from 4.92% to 256.16% in a US case concerning a stainless-steel product. The top of that range being the non-cooperation rate. The scale of exposure is not hypothetical: 227 anti-dumping and 82 CVD investigations were initiated against Indian exports between 1995 and 2017, with the EU and USA the largest imposers.

What should be on your DGTR investigation response checklist?

The trigger event is seeing your product (or a product you import) in an initiation notice. From that date, the checklist runs in four phases.

Day 0. 7

• Confirm your product, HS code and country are in scope of the initiation notice
• Calendar the day-40 registration/questionnaire deadline, the day-60 provisional-duty risk date, and the 1-year statutory outer limit
• Appoint counsel experienced in DGTR cases
• Register on SETU. Email OTP plus a mailed temporary password means the account takes days, so start early

Day 7. 30

• Pull your POI export or import data, transaction-wise
• Decide cooperate-vs-silence with the individual-vs-residual margin table in front of you
• Exporters: check de minimis. Own margin under 2%, country share under 3%
• Importers and users: request the User questionnaire and EIQ formats

Day 30. 40, then ongoing

• File the questionnaire response as a CV + NCV pair on SETU. The NCV is final on submission, no amendments
• Confirm deemed registration
• Attend the ~day-120 oral hearing; pre-draft disclosure comments for the ~5-day window
• Track the MoF notification (3-month levy window) and the 90-day CESTAT appeal clock
• Post-duty: diarise the sunset window (270 days pre-expiry) and the MTR window (months 12. 42); new shippers diarise NSR eligibility
• Indian exporters facing foreign cases: loop in your EPC and the Trade Defence Wing immediately

You import soda ash for glass manufacturing. In 2024 DGTR initiates AD (OI)-29/2024 against imports of Soda Ash from Turkey, Russia, the USA and Iran on a domestic-industry application. Your Turkish supplier asks what happens next and what each date means for your landed cost. </> } result= >

Finally: before you build a defence, check whether a duty already exists on your product. The anti-dumping duty in India guide covers where duties currently apply and how they are collected at customs.

Update history

• 2026-08-18 First published.