But more importantly, technology for producing drugs and intermediates exists in the country and this needs to be encouraged. The Chinese conundrum in the field of bulk drugs and intermediates for the past couple of years is not difficult to comprehend. In the name of free global trade they have succeeded in pushing marginally better products into this country. Even the Indian importers acknowledge this fact as any importer would look for better profits. It is also known that anti-dumping mechanism is tedious and slow.
Much damage generally occurs before a meaningful blockade comes into play.
The commerce ministry has therefore to think of imposing a dynamic duty structure in line with the strategies adopted by the countries dumping drug products in India. For all bulk drugs and intermediates the duty structure is generally at 35 per cent. There is now a need to differentiate between the duty structure of bulk drugs and intermediates. This is because the exporting countries especially China is pricing its intermediates higher than the finished bulk drug prices. A simple example is of l-base from China imported by Indian converters.