Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said that the hike in import duty on steel by the US will not have a big impact on Indian trade. “It is an era of competition. Every country has its own plan to increase its trade and the same was done by the US. The matter is not serious and will be tackled when WTO picks up the issue,” Singh said. Speaking exclusively to Zee Business, the steel minister said that the government is closely monitoring the reactions of steel producing countries, like China, Japan and Korea, to understand the way they are responding to the situation. When asked about the fear that China may dump its steel in India, the minister said that replacing the Minimum Import Price by anti-dumping duty will help to safeguard against it.
 
Last week, US President Donald Trump decided to set import tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium that started a trade-war across the world. The decision will come into force in 15 days. “At present India exports only 1.6% of its steel but under the government’s National Policy for Steel adopted in 2017 exports have to be raised to 5-6%. The target can only be achieved if the country starts producing high-end steel,” Singh said.

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The US has dragged India to the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism over export subsidies. It says these incentives were hurting US companies. US said India has provided exemptions that benefit Indian exporters, including steel products, pharmaceutical, chemicals, IT products, textiles, and apparel producers.

By Alok Priyadarshi