India not imposing safeguard duty on optic fibre imports

Currently, the majority of single-mode optical fibre imports come from China (File Image)

The finance ministry has rejected the Directorate General of Trade Remedies’ (DGTR) recommendation to impose 10 percent safeguard duty on import of single-mode optic fibre.

Single-mode optic fibres are usually for broadband connections. The safeguard duty would have been imposed under the Commerce Ministry.

The decision has also been conveyed to the World Trade Organisation (WHO), who were told on March 30 that the Centre has examined the safeguard measures and will not impose it, Mint reported.

Consideration into the matter began after domestic fibre optic players such as Birla Furukawa Fibre Optics and Sterlite Technologies complained about the boost in imports since July 2019. In fact, imports from the US, South Korea, Japan and China increased by 271 percent and 243 percent in January-June 2019.

The complainants claimed they could not compete with imports and lost market share which affected their production facilities.

From the opposite side, Japan's Sumitomo Electric Industries said there were “no critical circumstances for imposition of safeguard duty”.

The report noted that the Japanese government had submitted that imposing safeguard duty would affect infrastructure development projects and national interest.