India has begun an anti-dumping investigation into polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film exported from Bangladesh. PET film is used mainly to make packaging for food, medicine, cosmetics and industrial goods.
As part of the probe, India’s Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), a body under the country’s commerce and industry ministry, has scheduled a virtual oral hearing for August 6, according to Bangladesh’s commerce ministry. The DGTR announced the hearing in a July 13 letter that also covers PET film exported to India from China and Thailand.
Sources said the hearing followed a complaint by Indian producers, who allege that PET film is being dumped in India at below-market prices from Bangladesh, China and Thailand, harming Indian industry, and who want an anti-dumping duty imposed. An anti-dumping duty is an extra import tax a country levies when it believes foreign firms are selling goods at unusually low prices and hurting its own industry.
At this stage, Bangladeshi exporters, Indian producers, importers and other stakeholders will present their positions. The commerce ministry said Akij Biax Films Limited, the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi and three Indian applicants — Chiripal Poly Films, Ester Industries and Vacmet India — had been made parties to the case.
Commerce ministry officials said the probe was important for Bangladesh because PET film is a promising export and India a key market. They stressed that the investigation was not over and no final decision had been taken. The oral hearing is a key step; after reviewing submissions, the investigating authority makes a final recommendation, and the Indian government may then impose a duty or close the case if the evidence is insufficient.
Commerce Minister Khondaker Abdul Muktadir said on Monday that Bangladesh would gather the necessary data and request the Indian government not to impose an anti-dumping duty, adding that the request would be made “soon.”
Akij Biax Films, a leading company of the Akij Bashir Group that began operations in 2019, is a top PET film exporter from Bangladesh, with a plant in Trishal, Mymensingh. It is the country’s only major producer and also makes biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP), cast polypropylene (CPP) and stretch film. The company says it exports about 10,000 tonnes of PET film a year, with the rest sold at home, and had cited a capacity of more than 42,000 tonnes at launch. Akij director Sheikh Bashiruddin said the company’s exports were market-based, with no dumping, and that it was preparing to present its position at the hearing.
A 2025 report by the India-based Orion Market Research put the global PET film market at about US$11 billion and forecast it could nearly double by 2030.
This is not India’s first anti-dumping action against Bangladeshi goods. An anti-dumping duty on jute and jute products has been in place since 2017, and the DGTR recently recommended renewing it after a mid-term review; a duty on hydrogen peroxide is also in force. In the past, India moved against Rahimafrooz batteries but backed off after the matter went to the World Trade Organization, and it has completed anti-dumping probes into float glass and fishing nets from Bangladesh.
Mostafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said it was hard to believe Bangladeshi firms were exporting to India below production cost amid a power and gas crisis. He noted that India had withdrawn the battery complaint within 60 days after Bangladesh went to the WTO, and said building more such WTO precedents would help Bangladesh win relief.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report