The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), the investigative arm of the Indian Commerce Ministry, conducted an investigation to discover whether South Korea’s subsidy program for exports of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) to India is impacting the domestic industry.  

The Authority concluded that since the SBR exported to India from South Korea is subsidized, the domestic industry has suffered material injury.

 “The authority is of the view that imposition of duty is required to offset subsidization and injury. Therefore, authority considers it necessary and recommends imposition of anti-subsidy duty on imports,” the DGTR said in its latest notification.

The notification further reads ‘the Authority recommends imposition of anti-subsidy/countervailing duty on imports of subject goods, originating in or exported from subject country, from the date of notification to be issued in this regard by the Central government.’

The recommended duty was in the range between 1.89% and 4.06% on the landed value of the product in India.

The final decision on whether to impose duty on the product or not is taken by India’s Finance Ministry. 

The investigation followed an application filed by Indian Synthetic Rubber Pvt Ltd and Reliance Industries Ltd to initiate an investigation regarding the imports from South Korea.