After jute, India seeks anti-dumping duty on PET film

India’s trade remedies authority has recommended definitive anti-dumping duties of up to $218 per tonne on imports of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film, widely used in packaging, from Bangladesh for five years.

In the final findings of a year-long probe, dated September 29, the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) proposed a duty of $218 per tonne on film exported by most Bangladeshi firms.

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It set a lower rate of $58 per tonne for AKIJ Biax Films Ltd, a concern of AkijBashir Group, the only Bangladeshi company to cooperate with the probe.

The recommendation comes just days after India imposed anti-dumping duties of up to $445 per tonne on Bangladeshi jute products, including jute yarn and twine, following a mid-term review by DGTR.

India’s Directorate General of Trade Remedies proposed a duty of $218 per tonne on film exported by most Bangladeshi firms

Earlier this week, the DGTR separately recommended countervailing duties of up to $140.04 per tonne on jute products from Bangladesh.

The PET film – plastic sheets widely used in flexible packaging for food, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods, as well as in electrical and industrial applications – recommendation also covers China and Thailand.

Chinese producers face $54 to $361 per tonne, depending on whether they cooperated, and Thai exporters $198 to $366,  according to the DGTR report.

The DGTR concluded that dumped imports from the three countries undercut Indian producers’ prices and caused them material injury.

The duties take effect only if India’s finance ministry notifies them.

Bangladesh’s shipments of PET films rose from 12 tonnes in fiscal year 2021-22 to 2,763 tonnes in 2024-25, according to the findings, or about 3.4 percent of India’s PET film imports. China supplied 26,086 tonnes and Thailand 12,870.

The DGTR found that all of AKIJ’s relevant home-market sales were below cost, so it built a normal value from the company’s costs rather than its domestic prices. It, however, declined to adjust AKIJ’s export price for export incentives, saying the claim was not tied to the product shipped to India.

AKIJ officials did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

The probe began on September 30, 2025, after an application from Indian manufacturers Chiripal Poly Films, Ester Industries and Vacmet India.

It initially covered Bangladesh, China, Thailand and the United States. The US was dropped at the preliminary stage after the domestic industry withdrew its complaint.

The investigation examined imports from April 2024 to March 2025, and the injury assessment ran from 2021-22 to the end of that period.

Anti-dumping duties are protective tariffs imposed on imported goods by a host nation when foreign items are exported at prices lower than their fair domestic market value or production cost, causing material injury to local industry.

With PET film facing these new tariffs, the number of Bangladeshi export products subject to such trade measures stands at five.

Historically, five countries – Argentina, Brazil, India, Pakistan, and Turkey – have slapped anti-dumping duties on Bangladeshi exports, including 100 per cent knitted textile gloves, jute bags and sacks, hydrogen peroxide, jute yarn/twine, and synthetic yarn.

Pakistan previously applied a 12.14 per cent anti-dumping duty on hydrogen peroxide from most Bangladeshi exporters before later discontinuing it.

Since 1992, Bangladeshi exporters have faced nearly a dozen anti-dumping investigations across these markets, according to a study by the Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute.