Within weeks of extending the anti-dumping duty on Chinese steel until December, India has yet again imposed import restrictions on Chinese products.
New Delhi has hiked the customs duty on bamboo imports to 25 percent from the current 10 percent. The move is aimed at encouraging the use of domestic bamboo in the manufacture of incense sticks.
"Higher import duty on bamboo will discourage Indian incense stick manufacturers to source cheap bamboo from China and will instead help the domestic bamboo industry. We have given a lot of incentives to the incense stick sector too in the past", said a source from India’s federal Ministry of Commerce.
India has extended the anti-dumping duty on certain varieties of steel through December 2020 to insulate domestic companies from cheap imports of the commodity from China and other nations, like South Korea and Malaysia.