Morbi: Office bearers of Morbi Ceramic Association held a meeting with a delegation of Centre over anti-dumping duty imposed on Indian ceramic products by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has passed an interim order to impose anti-dumping duty ranging from 40% to 106% on ceramic products imported from India.

Gulf is a big market for Morbi based ceramic units. GCC, a political and economic union of all Arab countries except Iraq and represents countries like Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates has proposed 40% duty on Indian ceramic import against 24% duty on Chinese import of same products.

A delegation of Morbi Ceramic Association held a meeting with GCC anti dumping officials at Saudi Arabia in presence of Indian embassy officials, commerce ministry officials, Association present Mukesh Udhreja and Manish Savsani among others.

A four-hour long meeting discussed various possible solutions.

Morbi, the biggest ceramic cluster of India, exports 35% to 40% of its products to Gulf countries.

The GCC had initiated an inquiry against Indian, Chinese and Spanish ceramic products a year ago following a complaint registered by Saudi Ceramics and Alfanar Ceramic and Porcelain factory of Saudi Arabia, which represents over 32% of GCC production.

The Morbi Ceramic Association reviewed the interim order, and, according to it, most of the exporters fall under 42.9% anti-dumping duty criteria with their Chinese counterparts facing 24% duty. Thus, Morbi is sure to lose out on competition to China in the Gulf.

DeshGujarat