Ramesh Juneja, regional chairman at Council of Leather Exports, said “Even though the import duty on footwear was increased to 35% in 2019, the flow of Chinese footwear has not come down a bit. The only way this can be controlled is to impose anti-dumping duty. We have already written to the government on this.”
Kolkata: In order to guard the domestic industry from cheap imports leather manufacturers and traders have urged the government to impose anti-dumping duty on Chinese footwear.
They have also sought a hike in import duty on chemicals like basic chrome sulphate and sodium sulphide, which are imported from China and used for treating leather.
These chemicals attract an import duty of 8.2%, which the industry wants to be raised to 35%.
“Even though the import duty on footwear was increased to 35% in 2019, the flow of Chinese footwear has not come down a bit,” Ramesh Juneja, regional chairman at Council of Leather Exports, told ET. “The only way this can be controlled is to impose anti-dumping duty. We have already written to the government on this.”
Due to the recent faceoff between Indian and Chinese armies on the Line of Actual Control, the leather industry has become more vocal amid the rising clamour to boycott Chinese goods.
China manufactures 13.1 billion pairs of shoes annually. Its own consumption is 4.1 billion pairs. It thus has a huge volume of footwear to export. On the contrary, India produces 2.57 billion pairs of shoes. India’s per capita consumption has increased to 2 pairs per year in 2019 from 1.7 pairs in 2016. This has encouraged China to export more to India.
Reference:
Ghosal, S. (2020, June 23). Leather manufacturers, traders urge govt to impose anti-dumping duty on Chinese footwear. Retrieved June 26, 2020, from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/leather-manufacturers-traders-urge-govt-to-impose-anti-dumping-duty-on-chinese-footwear/articleshow/76530749.cms
