Surat Weavers Protest Imposition of VFY Anti-Dumping Duty

Various Surat textile industry associations, primarily those of weavers are up in arms against the decision of the Indian government to again impose anti-dumping duty on imports of viscose filament yarn (VFY).

The anti-dumping duty on VFY was earlier removed in fiscal 2017-18, which led to weavers investing in modern and high speed weaving technologies

Various Surat weavers’ bodies have decided to collectively fight against the government decision to re-impose the antidumping duty.

They blame the domestic VFY manufacturers over pressurising the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) on re-imposing the anti-dumping duty

“The weavers are of the opinion that their concerns were disregarded by the DGFT when taking the decision,” media reports stated.

“The imposition of anti-dumping duty will prevent Surat weavers from access to high quality VFY yarn and will have to depend on low-quality VFY produced by Indian companies,” a trade body official said.

The official added that imported VFY is costlier than locally produced VFY, but they were forced to import the yarn, as it is of very good quality.

The trade bodies said that if local manufacturers offer quality comparable to imported VFY, they would willingly purchase from the domestic market