China today imposed anti-dumping duties on Indian companies stating that they were found to have dumped Tertiary Butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) products in the Chinese market even as it said it would stop levying such duties on Phthalic Anhydride.

The anti-dumping duty of 49.8 per cent on TBHQ imports from India will begin tomorrow and last five years, the Chinese Commerce Ministry ruled.

TBHQ can be used as an antioxidant in cooking oil or as additives in the pharmaceutical and animal feed industries.

The Commerce Ministry’s final ruling came four months after it launched temporary anti-dumping measures against such imports from India, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the ministry’s year-long investigation, TBHQ imports from India have been dumped in the Chinese market and such imports have caused substantial damage to China’s domestic industry.

However, the anti-dumping duties will not be retroactive to imports before.

Earlier the ministry said it will stop imposing anti-dumping duties on phthalic anhydride imported from India, South Korea and Japan from August 30.

The ministry said it has received no expiry review request from Chinese industries to extend the anti-dumping duties that will expire on August 30 and it won’t start an expiry review itself, Xinhua reported.

In 2009, the ministry had extended the anti-dumping duties on phthalic anhydride imports from the three countries one time, extending it for another five years after a review investigation, saying such imports would cause damage to Chinese industries.

Phthalic anhydride is an important industrial chemical mainly used in the mass production of plasticiser for plastics.

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