← External Forces: Trade, Geopolitics & Market Access (all topics)
Anti-dumping - rubber chain (layered duties)
What it is
The rubber products view of trade remedies. The Directorate General of Trade Remedies investigates whether imports are sold below normal value and recommends duties, which the finance ministry imposes
In rubber the duties span the chain - carbon black, rubber chemicals and select synthetic rubbers all carry protection, with an NBR investigation opened in Oct 2024
Impact on industries
- Makes domestic elastomer and chemical capacity investable, since a producer building a plant needs assurance that below-cost imports cannot collapse the price mid-project
- The distinctive problem is layering - duties sit at several stages, so a rubber goods maker pays protected prices for carbon black, chemicals and synthetic rubber at once
- MSMEs bear it worst - they buy protected inputs but compete against finished imports, so protection upstream becomes a competitiveness problem downstream
- Whether a duty helps or hurts depends on where a firm sits in the chain, which is why positions on the same investigation are opposed