On October 31, Indian bedlinen manufacturer would be presenting their case before EU officials in Brussels.

Indian bedlinen manufacturer are facing the threat of imposition of countervailing duty (CVD) from the European Union.

Brussels has already revoked the anti-dumping duty on cotton bedlinen and it considers that levying of CVD on bedlinen will be necessary to prevent further injury to the European industry.

KK Jalan, joint secretary in the textiles ministry will hold talks with its EU counterpart at the same venue on Thursday with a view to
reducing the CVD on the bedlinen manufacturing companies already notified by the Brussels. The duty ranges from 4.4 per cent to 12.2 per cent.

The companies that will be affected by the measure include Bombay Dyeing & Mfg Co, Nowrosjee Wadia Sons, Prakash Cotton Mills and Divya Textiles. KK Jalan will also be present at the meeting as a witness.

Last year, the EU had imposed anti-dumping/anti-subsidy duty on polyester staple fibre (PSF) and polyester texturised filament yarn (PTY). In the case of PSF, a price undertasking had been given by one of the leading manufacturers. The Silk Rayon Textile Export Promotion Council had therefore given up its move to pursue the case in the World Trade Organisation.

In the case of PTY, Brussels had gone ahead with imposing the duty notwithstanding the strong pleading by New Delhi that exports were not being subsidised.

In fact, the EU has initiated the largest number of such anti-dumping actions in the sector against the developing nations. Between 1994 and 2001, the Union, India’s largest trading partner, had initiated as many as 53 new investigations into alleged dumping of textiles by the developing countries, according to India’s Permanent Mission in Geneva.

During the same period, the other sectors that witnessed the highest number of anti-dumping probes by the EU were iron and steel and chemicals. Significantly, of these 53 initiations, as many as 46 cases or 87 per cent involved imports from the developing countries. Again, 29 of the 46 cases revealed that the investigations were prompted by “motivated” complaints by industry associations. Moreover, the Mission found that in several instances, investigations into the same product were revived back-to-back extending over long periods